


Intensity

by SupernaturalCuddlePuddle (DawnMasonCullen)



Category: Star Trek Into Darkness - Fandom, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies), Star Trek: Into Darkness (Movie)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Artistic Liberties, BAMF Chekov, Bones is done with this shit, Character Development, Explicit Language, Fake british accents annoy me, Hints of the original Wrath of Khan, I like to make up backstory, I use paint so sue me, I'm kinda mean to Carol Markus, I've been told my Sulu is good. Yay!, Idiot Augments, Im taking quite a lot of liberties here, It's teen for now, Khan isn't evil, Kinda, M/M, Might be slightly Dub Con in places, Murder, No that's not Watson, Oblivious Chekov, Other, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Romance, Shut up I'm in denial, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Spock Knows Everything, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Sulu is OOC, Unrepentant about blatant Sherlock references, but kinda, but not really, chekhan, dubious knowledge of electronics and their innards, dubious morals all around, hopefully, i have no idea how to write kirk tbh, i'm bad at photo manips, lots of minor fight scenes i guess, master plans, not really underage, not smut, porn with plot?, relationship fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-06-14
Updated: 2016-03-23
Packaged: 2018-02-04 15:18:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Underage
Chapters: 12
Words: 43,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1783732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DawnMasonCullen/pseuds/SupernaturalCuddlePuddle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chekov meets the prisoner for the first time on his monthly night watch. The entire shift is quiet, almost peaceful. He knew there was a dangerous prisoner in the brig that had the captain in a nervous frenzy, but what harm could he do to Chekov from behind the reinforced dilithium infused plazma-glass? </p><p>(Or the one where Chekov and Khan meet early on and become friends (or something) and it makes the entire plot go awry. Nothing is the same. Will continue to post STiD.) Very drawn out and slow buildy with a Chekhan endgame. Eventually. Lots of Character exploration.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. First Impressions

**Author's Note:**

> This will be my first ever (and maybe last) Star Trek fic. Chekhan was a new discovery for me and was followed by the (terribly disappointing) discovery that there isn't really any Chekov/Khan in this fandom that isn't PWP. Don't get me wrong, I love my PWP just as much as the next Trekkie, but sometimes I just want a nice long romancy fic of awesomeness. So here. Have.

Chekov meets the prisoner for the first time on his monthly night watch. The entire shift is quiet, almost peaceful. He knew there was a dangerous prisoner in the brig that had the captain in a nervous frenzy, but what harm could he do to Chekov from behind the reinforced dilithium infused plasma-glass?

Despite his self-assurances, Pavel has to suppress nervous jitters as the doors swish open to the brig. The lights are dimmed as the ship is sent into inactive mode for the sleep cycle.

Star Fleet requires all ships to adhere to strictly controlled 24 hour cycles throughout extended missions. It got hard to tell what your body needed without the natural cues of a rising and setting sun. The lights on the brig were dimmed to their lowest setting, lending an almost eerie glow to the edges of the room. Pavel stepped in and took a quiet breath. The sound echoed in the large room.

The young ensign was glad there was only one prisoner in the brig on this trip. He remembered a rotation nearly a month ago where they had been transporting five prisoners to a mining reform operation on Gamma Sigma 12. The prisoners had taken the opportunity to goad and taunt Pavel until he nearly abandoned his post to escape their leering gazes and cutting remarks. One prisoner, though, should be easy enough to handle. If he was lucky, the man would be asleep and Pavel could weather the first of a week’s nights in peace.

He wasn’t.

The man who met Pavel’s gaze through the thick barrier of plasma-glass was fascinating. He didn’t strike the boy as a typical criminal. The prisoner sat on the small outcropping that served as a bed. His back was ruler straight and his proud shoulders were back and seemed to have the strength to hold up the heavens.

The eyes that captured Pavel’s were an icy grey with a core of hazel fire. They reminded Pavel of the light of a new star forming, bright and ethereal. But these eyes held none of the new, innocent beauty of a star in formation. These eyes were heavy, full of knowledge of the world and the wrongs that a man can weather in life. These eyes held a piercing distrust and savage intellect that could cut to the soul to reveal the secrets of any adversary.

Yes, Captured. That was the only word for it. The man didn’t just meet Pavel’s gaze. No. That implied that he and Pavel were equals, and that was as far from the truth as was possible. Though the prisoner was unarmed, secluded, and at the complete and utter mercy of Pavel’s control inside his cell, that man held all of the power. Pavel was helpless under that gaze. Cut open and bleeding every secret before this fearsome creature.

The prisoner blinked, and Pavel shook himself, averting his gaze. He refused to look back up and risk coming in contact with those awe inspiring eyes. He went to the desk that faced the plasma-glass enclosures and sat, pulling a PADD from his bag and beginning modifications to a geothermal model he had developed in his spare time.

Ten minutes later, Pavel shivered and looked up, glaring unintentionally at the prisoner, whose eyes had not left him since he had entered the room. He quickly averted his gaze again as those silver pools attempted to drown him again. After thirty more minutes of fiddling with the schematic, Pavel was jolted out of his immersion in solar-tectonic alga rhythms by a question.

“What are you doing?”

Pavel looked up, surprised.

“I-I am working.” He stuttered.

The prisoner scowled. “No. I meant on the PADD. What are you doing? It appears to be quite the delicate configuration.”

Puzzled as to how he knew that when the PADD had been hidden from his view by the desk, Pavel said, “I am working on some baze equations for a geozermal terraforming model I am working on. Ze calculations must be precise or ze model will destroy any wiable resources zat ze planet might have deweloped.”

“That isn’t work.” He said, raising a brow, imperiously.

“Eet sounds like work to me.”

“No. You are not a scientist. You shirt is a blatant enough sign of that. You are in a red shirt. Your station is most likely in the mechanical field. Engineer, then. But the shirt is ill-fitting. A recent position. Tell me ensign, why is a low level technician such as yourself playing around with a very advanced version of prototype terraforming modules in his spare time?” The prisoner deduced.

“Impressive. Z-Zat was almost correct.” Pavel said, wide eyed. “Quite ze good guess.”

The prisoner scowled and pinned Pavel with that mercury gaze. “What do you mean ‘almost correct’. I was spot on.”

“Well… no. Zere vere seweral szings zat you missed.” Pavel said, nearly hiding behind his PADD.

“What.” A demand.

“W-well.” Pavel stuttered. “I am not a new member of ze Enterprise. I have been on ze ship since her maiden woyage. Since recenly I vas on ze bridge. I vas ze nawigator.”

When the prisoner stayed silent Pavel continued, “I vas giwen zis shirt ven ze chief engineer, Mister Scott, left ze ship. For ze duration of zis woyage, I am ze acting chief engineer.”

The prisoners eyes widened a fraction.

“How old are you.”

“Um… sewenteen?” It came out as a question in his nervousness and Pavel winced.

Looking infinitesimally impressed, the prisoner noted, “That is quite young. The enterprise is the federation’s flag ship. Either you are quite an excellent little officer, or the federation has lessened it’s standards considerably in the last three hundred years.

Pavel frowned.

“I-I am not zat smart. I sink I got lucky. Ze captain has quite a few people on hiz ship zat would have been worse off wizout him.” Pavel said, fondly.

The prisoners lip curled. “Yes. Your _captain._ I can imagine you quite idolize him, being a captain at his age. There is definitely something to be said for his sheer stupidity and blind luck. It would be in his best interest to surround himself with the fantastic. It will only serve to make him look better as well. ‘You are the company you keep’ and all that.”

“No, ze-“, Pavel started.

“I do care to listen to you rave on about your beloved captain!” The prisoner hissed. “Any man who would take on a mission of blatant revenge, that is so obviously against the codes his people preach, is no one to be idolized. Especially by one who shows such a tiny spark of promise as you do.”

Pavel was unsure how to respond to that, and thankfully didn’t have to. His communicator chirped, signaling his hour in the brig had ended. Relieved, Pavel stood and waited only a minute more before another crewman was there to relieve him of duty.

…….

Later that night, Pavel tossed again in his bunk and murmured an apology to the ensign in the bunk below his. Sometimes he wished he had a private room like all of the other bridge crew. He was embarrassed when the captain or some other ranked crewman came to visit and was thrown by his two bunkmates, one an ensign science officer and the other a chef’s aid and bartender for the mess.

Resigning himself to a sleepless night, Pavel pulled out his PADD and continued working on his schematic, pushing thoughts of the imposing and regal prisoner from his mind.

 

 

The next day was a long one. Pavel had a long (and fairly harrowing) day at the navigation terminal. Around him, Kirk and Spock unraveled a scheme devised by the prisoner (Whose name he now knew was John Harrison) to force Admiral Marcus into starting a war with the Klingon Empire.

Kirk and Spock acquired the prisoner after aborting the kill mission, but Admiral Markus was irrationally displeased with the change in plans. Pavel didn’t see why. Anyone who knew Kirk, even a little, knew that nothing went as planned. Now, the ship was on its way back to Star Fleet HQ with the prisoner and seventy-two prototype missiles that Pavel had a bad feeling about.

It seemed to him that the Admiral was being evasive and suspicious about the entire situation, including the initial bombing of the archives. It seemed to Pavel that it was all being endured to willingly by the captain.

At the end of his shift, Pavel was relieved by Ensign Feonlin, and he was just stepping on the turbo-lift when Sulu stuck his arm in the door.

“Hey, Chekov… Do you want to get a couple of drinks with me?” Sulu said.

Pavel’s eyes widened and he smiled. “I don’t zink so, sir. Eet iz probably a bad idea.”

Sulu seemed deflated. “Oh. If it’s a bad time-”

“Oh! No, sir. Eet iz not zat!” Pavel interrupted. “You see, sir, I am sewenteen, so I cannot legally drink on ze ship. Not to say I have not had alcohol before, but ze ship cannot serwe me, and it would be improper if you ordered me alcohol, sir.”

“Oh.” Sulu seemed at a loss for what to say next.

“I szink it would be best if I went and got a few hours of sleep, sir. I did not sleep much last night, and I have a night-route zis week. Perhaps if you are still avake you might keep me company in ze brig tonight.” Pavel said. Anything was better than being alone. He didn’t think he could take another hour under that penetrating gaze.

This seemed to be the right thing to say. Sulu brightened considerably and wished Pavel a jaunty good-sleep as he exited the turbo-lift.

Pavel smiled, glad he would have company.

In the end, Pavel managed to get about three hours of sleep before he was due for his nighttime rounds. After an hour on the bridge, monitoring sensors and another hour patrolling the corridors, Pavel finally made his way to the brig. He relieved the mid-twenties science officer and settled into the terminal, pointedly avoiding looking at the prisoner. It was futile however, because his attention was drawn when Harrison asked a question.

“It occurs to me that you and I were never properly introduced. Tell me, boy. What is your name?” Harrison cocked his head curiously.

“M-my name? Oh. Eet iz Chekov.” He stuttered. It was frustrating. He never seemed to stutter under the gaze of his superior officers, and yet those striking quicksilver eyes seemed to strip him of all composure.

“Surely that isn’t your only name. Last I checked Earth was still in the practice of giving tediously long names to its offspring.” Harrison said.

“Pavel. Pavel Chekov.”

“Hm. It fits you. A very Russian name to go with your quite regional accent.” The prisoner remarked.

“I-” Whatever he was going to say was lost as the doors swooshed open to admit Hikaru Sulu.

“Lieutenant. I vas not sure you vere going to come.” Pavel said, smiling.

Sulu returned the smile and met Pavel at the desk. Chekov, having stood at Sulu’s entrance, retook his seat and pulled his PADD from his bag.

“How many more days do you have of night rotation?” Sulu asked.

“Originally I vas supposed to only have two days, but zis morning Ensign Teoril asked me if I vould cover her brig duties for ze rest of ze week, so now I have four. I beliwe zat ze prisoner makes her nerwous to an extent zat she cannot make logical decisions.” Pavel said. Shooting a furtive glance at the prisoner, who seemed to be alternating between paying rapt attention to Pavel’s words and shooting cutting glares at the back of Sulu’s head.

Sulu looked over his shoulder at the prisoner, who put slightly more effort into looking menacing while under scrutiny. Pavel wondered if he did that while alone with him and he had just been to self-conscious to notice.

“I don’t think I like the idea of you being alone with him. I can see why you wanted me here with you.” Sulu said.

Pavel started in surprise and ignored the judgmental eyebrow the prisoner had raised.

“Zat is not why I inwited you to sit vis me. I cannot drink alcohol and I zought it would be more comfortable if we spent time togezer alone.” Pavel glanced at Harrison again. _Mostly alone._ He thought to himself.

“Oh.” Sulu murmured, suddenly closer than he had been before.

Pavel looked up, wondering at the close proximity. His eyes widened as he took in the expression on Sulu’s face.

“I-” The protest never made it past his lips as Sulu’s mouth crashed down onto his. It was rushed and messy, Sulu’s nose knocking Pavel’s and teeth scraping together.

“Mmph!” Was all he could manage around the prying lips. Pavel’s eyes widened in shock and his mouth went slack. Taking this as an invitation, Sulu dove into Pavel’s mouth, his slimy tongue pushed between the boy’s lips, invading and bringing with it the taste of cheap synthesized gin.

Pavel’s eyes accidentally met those of the prisoner over Sulu’s shoulder, and the wholly unexpected flash of pure rage that the boy found in Harrison’s eyes was enough to jolt him out of his stupor. Pavel ripped his mouth out of the kiss and put a forceful hand on each of Sulu’s shoulders. Sulu, not yet realizing that Pavel was trying to get away, had somehow worked one hand up Pavel’s shirt and the other was making a valiant attempt at opening his trousers.

Horrified, Pavel put a bit more force in his rebuttal, but overcompensated, and somehow, Sulu ended up in a splayed heap on the floor. Confusion flashed across his face before being replaced with fury. Standing, Sulu brushed himself off and hissed, “What the hell, Pavel? You sure are inviting for someone who wants to take it slow.” He began to approach Pavel again. “But if you want it slow and gentle, I can give it to you like that.”

Sputtering helplessly, Pavel searched frantically for something to say that would tactfully end this horrifying encounter, but he didn’t have to.

“Disgusting.” Came the hissed voice of the prisoner.

Sulu spun on his heel and pegged Harrison with a glare that paled in comparison to the one he received in return.

“Keep your mouth shut. This is none of your concern.” Sulu said.

“I believe it became my concern when you began to lower the IQ of the _entire_ star ship. It is quite obvious that the boy had no idea of your affections and vehemently rejects them, and yet you continue to blindly grope him even after being forcibly removed from his person.” Harrison sneered.

Sulu started and turned to look at Pavel. What he saw seemed to confirm what Harrison had said, however he did not react how Pavel expected. The sneer he had been aiming at the prisoner ramped up a notch and he raked Pavel with a glare.

Flinching, Pavel wilted under the unexpected censure. “You teasing cockslut whore!” Sulu growled.

Shocked, Pavel only stared as Sulu stormed up and struck him across the face. “How dare you string me along, batting your eyelashes and throwing coy smiles. It would serve you right if I raped you against the glass as Harrison watched.”

After spitting on the floor at Pavel’s feet, Sulu turned on his heel and stalked from the room.

 

……..

For a long time, Pavel just sat at the terminal, palm to his cheek, staring at the door. He had no idea what had happened. Sulu had gone from genial smiles and friendly conversation to groping to a searing hatred so fast it left Pavel feeling near whiplash. He had all but forgotten the prisoner, who stood at the glass, seemingly at a loss for what to do. He did not know the boy in any way, and even if they were on friendly terms, there was little he could do from behind the glass of his cell. The prisoner suspected that any touch he might offer would be rejected anyway.

Pavel shook himself and became aware of the heavy gaze of the prisoner. He was unwilling to meet the man’s eyes and see pity, or worse, censure. Pavel could not leave the desk for another thirty minutes without being cited for abandoning his post, so he sat. The forlorn expression slowly melted from his face to be replaced by cold anger.

Harrison was surprised to see such a hard expression on the boy’s soft and innocent face. When Pavel’s eyes met his, Harrison was surprised to feel a jolt of respect flow through him. He would have expected the boy to weep and flee the room. Such calm under stressful and embarrassing circumstances was an admirable quality in one so young. He had thought the boy would crumple under the pressure considering how his voice wavered when he spoke.

The boy seemed to shake himself, and shockingly, he began to work diligently at his PADD as if nothing had happened. The only signs of the earlier debacle were the bright red mark on the boy’s cheek and the deep anger that had yet to leave the boys shining, intelligent eyes.

Thirty minutes later, when the boy left, Harrison was left staring after him with a bemused expression. Interesting. Even more noteworthy was the foreign sensation of anger and a tiny amount of protectiveness that he had never before felt for someone who was not a member of his crew.

Yes. Interesting indeed. He was definitely not bored now. No. His mind seemed to be quite taken with plans on how to completely ruin Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu. He had plans to make.


	2. Revelations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Khan has a good day, Pavel is a genius, and Kirk gets a raging headache.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm posting these chapters as I write them, so don't expect any sort of regularity to happen here.

Being a prisoner was tedious. The lack of mobility grated on Khan’s nerves and slithered against his skin like a miasma of weakness. He had plans to make, things to accomplish that could not be done within this plasma-glass container. The most recent addition to this list was to _ruin_ Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu. This goal puzzled him. What difference did it make if he harassed another member of this worthless crew? It shouldn’t matter in the slightest. There was no reason for him to be reacting in such a visceral manner to a boy who meant nothing to him.

Logic, however, did not change his goal. His position of near powerlessness only added to his fervor. Strangely, this position was solidified by the boy’s actions the day after he was assaulted. The boy entered the room as he had done the past two nights. His head was high and his expression was open but determined. He sat at the terminal and began to work on his PADD.

Khan sensed that he would deflect any attempt to discuss the previous night’s events, so he used a different tactic. “What do you intend to do with the terraformation module you are designing?”

The boy looked up in surprise, his shoulders relaxing infinitesimally. “What?”

Khan narrowed his eyes in response. He hated to repeat himself.

“Um… I-I don’t really have a plan. Zere are seweral zings I could do vis it once it is completed, howewer I am creating it as an interest project, and would hate to hand my research ower to anozer scientist.” Pavel said. “Y-You aren’t going to mention ze….”

The boy dropped his gaze and faltered.

“If you had wanted to discuss your abuse at the hands Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu you would have brought it up. I was attempting to be tactful.” Khan lied.

“Eet was not abuse!” The boy protested. “Eet was a simple misunderstanding. He did not mean to-“

“How do you define abuse in your society, Pavel?” Khan hissed.

The boy was thrown by the use of his first name. “I-I don’t… zere was a reason and-“

“You meant to tell me that there is a legitimate reason for a superior officer to assault his subordinate sexually, and when rejected threaten and defame said subordinate in a wholly uncalled for manner?” Khan asked, drolly.

“No. Zat is inexcusable, but he asked me to forgiwe him and I have.” Pavel said, flushing.

“Hmm. That does not negate the fact that it is against Star Fleet regulations.” Khan said, then deciding he had what he needed, changed the subject. “What mode of terraforming is your device centered around?”

Floored, the boy stared at him openly for several moments before he answered. “Eet is a thermal fusion based reactor. Ze panels are infused with nitrium and dilithium supports to maintain structural integrity under ze force of its power source.”

“And what is the power source?” Khan asked with growing interest.

“A highly compressed, destabilized neutron core. Zey are surprisingly easy to make, but ze casing has to be strong enough to contain ze thermal energy until eet needs to be released. A high powered focused blast of ze thermal energy rapidly stabilizes ze crust of ze planet, and anozer device vill release compressed nitrogen and oxygen into ze synthetic ozone layer to create a stable living environment.” Pavel’s eyes were shining with enthusiasm for his project.

“Once ze prototypes are complete and I have worked out all of ze bugs, eet vill drastically reduce ze amount of time eet takes to terraform a planet. Ze current method takes a minimum of one solar month to complete.” Pavel explained.

Brilliant!

Khan carefully schooled his expression to hide the growing fascination with the mind of the boy in front of him. Would the boy ever cease to surprise him? Khan felt his anger at the boy’s attacker grow. How dare that putrid little imbecil threaten to harm someone who was filled with such fascinating potential!

No. This would have to be dealt with, and soon. The last thing Khan wanted was for that idiot to decide that he deserved some form of revenge.

Their conversation continued along those lines until Pavel’s rotation ended. The boy stood with a rueful smile and waved as he left the room.

“Bye, John.” He said with a smile.

Khan jerked and said, “No.”

Frowning, Pavel paused in the doorway. “Sorry?”

“My name is Khan. Khan Noonian Singh. John Harrison was an alias given to me by Admiral Marcus in order to pass me off as a normal member of Star Fleet while I built him a ship and weapons.” Irritated, Khan spun on his heel and strode to the back of his cell.

After a moment, he registered a quiet, “Good night…..Khan.” Before the doors swooshed closed and he was alone.

 

 

 

Khan met his daily tongue lashing (courtesy of Captain Kirk) with equal parts amusement and distain. His mood was soured by the growing intensity of his fondness for his nighttime guard, and further worsened by thoughts of the irksome little pest that was Hikaru Sulu. That problem, however, was soon to be remedied. Yes. Perhaps Kirk could be put to some use after all.

“Tell me, Captain. What is Star Fleet’s opinion on sexual assault of a subordinate?” Khan asked, flicking imaginary dust off of his trousers.

Flummoxed, Kirk tapered out of the speech (rant) he had been giving on the nature of his mission and his opinion of Khan as a person. Not that Khan cared. What did the captain know of his thoughts and motivations?

“What?” He asked, thrown by the seemingly random question.

“You have video and audio surveillance hidden within my cell, do you not?” Khan continued. “Would that surveillance pick up occurrences that take place right outside my cell, say…. at the terminal?”

“Why does that matter? And how the hell did you know that there were cameras-“ Kirk started.

“Irrelevant Captain. Do keep up. Does it or does it not capture the terminal?” Khan interrupted.

Kirk turned to Commander Spock who, as of yet, had said nothing. Spock seemed to consider the angle of the “hidden” Cameras before nodding.

“It is entirely likely that the cameras captured any occurrence that took place at the terminal, but I do not see how that is in any way relevant to the topic at hand.” Spock said.

“The boy who is on night rotation, Pavel. He was assaulted by another member of your crew two days ago in this room. Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu attempted to initiate sexual intercourse with Pavel, and when he was rejected, threatened and degraded the boy before leaving. Pavel lead me to believe that there were regulations against this, and I am 98% certain that the boy did not come forth to report the occurrence.” Khan said.

“Pavel?” Kirk seemed puzzled. He looked to Spock, who said. “Ensign Pavel Chekov, Navigations and temporary Chief Engineer.”

“The kid?” Kirk turned to Khan. “What does it matter to you what happens to my crew?”

“I believe what is important in this situation, Captain, is not what it matters to me, but what it matters to you.” I have reason to believe that his attacker still poses a danger to the boy and it serves my interests to see that he does not come to harm. That is all the information that you need.”

Khan turned from the glass and gave his back to the Captain, dismissing him. Looking peeved and a bit troubled, Kirk stalked from the room, quickly followed by Spock.

Now with one plan coming to a close and the seeds of another planted, all Khan had to do was sit back and wait.

 

 

 

“I can’t believe the nerve of that guy. He has the balls to sit in my brig and act all high and mighty. Does he not understand the position he’s in?” Kirk raged. “And what the hell does he mean by saying someone tried to rape Chekov? What game is he playing?”

“It does not seem to me that aiding Ensign Chekov will in any way give him an advantage. From what I know of the Ensign as a person, he is more likely to be upset by getting his attacker in trouble than grateful to the prisoner for his aid. Either way, he stands to gain nothing from this endeavor.” Spock replied. “My shift ends in approximately fifteen minutes. At its close, I will review the recordings from the brig cameras and report my findings. If Ensign Chekov was indeed assaulted, the aggressor will be brought to justice.”

With that, Spock and Kirk went their separate ways.

……..

Several hours later, the door to the Captain’s office chirped, and the door opened to admit Spock. The Vulcan was wearing an unreadable expression as usual, but strain could be seen flickering around the edges of his eyes.

“Captain. There is something you need to see.” Spock said.

Spock rounded the desk and placed a PADD on the desk in front of Kirk. First, he pulled up a video feed from two days ago. There in front of the camera was frozen an image of Pavel Chekov and Lieutenant Hikaru Zulu. It was quite obvious to them both what was happening. Kirk sighed and resigned himself to what had to happen next.

It was late, but the night rotation had yet to start. Kirk signaled Pavel’s communicator and summoned the boy to his office. When the boy arrived, he took one look at the screen and flushed. His eyes lowered and he stuttered, “Z-zat is-“

“You are not being reprimanded for your failure to report this incident. Whether or not you wish to press charges is your own business-“

“No! I don’t want him to get in trouble.” Pave said.

“That may be the case, but once the incident has come to the attention of your superior officers, it’s Star Fleet regulation that the one who broke our guidelines be reprimanded.” Kirk said. “There is no way around this and quite frankly I’m glad. Any asshole that would do this to another person does not deserve to be a member of my crew.”

“Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu will be confined to quarters for the remainder of our journey and upon further investigation, may face criminal proceedings or removal from Star Fleet. Nothing you say will change that. I’m sorry if this has caused you any undue distress. If you do not wish to press personal charges against you attacker we understand. Do you require time to contemplate the decision?” Spock asked.

“No, I… No. I vill not be pressing charges.” Pavel said.

“All right. If there is nothing else...” Kirk paused to check with Spock. “Alright. You are dismissed.”

Pavel bowed and left, rushing to make it to the start of his night rotation.

After the boy left, Spock turned to Kirk and said, “There is something else you need to see.” Spock took the pad and forwarded the video to the night before and stopped it just before Pavel left at the end of his shift and resumed the recording.

“My name is Khan. Khan Noonian Singh. John Harrison was an alias given to me by Admiral Marcus in order to pass me off as a normal member of Star Fleet while I built him a ship and weapons.”

The prisoners words rose from the PADD and with them came a surge if uncertainty and the beginnings of a raging headache.

“He has to be lying. There is no way that is true.” Kirk said.

Spock shook his head and replied, “I would be inclined to agree, but under the circumstances, I am uncertain. Had this claim been made to a crewman with more rank, I would be sure it was some ploy to secure his release, but giving the information to Ensign Pavel would gain him nothing. It is possible that he meant us to see it, but that does not negate the feeling of truthfulness I get from this.”

Kirk sighed. “Screw this. I will ask him about it tomorrow. Obviously its important if he went to all of the trouble of helping Pavel just to bring this to our attention. We are set to meet up with Admiral Marcus to two days. If what he says is true…”

Kirk let the words hang in the air, afraid to think of the possibility that their entire mission had been founded on lies.

If tomorrow never came it would be too soon.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tell me what you think.


	3. Oops

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Khan has a rather interesting and eventful day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys are happy. I find myself sorely neglecting my other story in favor of this one. So sorry about that if you guys read Of Blood and Moons. Also, is Chekov's accent consistent? Is it bothering anyone? Maybe I'm paranoid. Whatever. Enjoy! :)

Pavel’s last shift on the night rotation seemed to drag on. On the one hand, he was supremely pissed at Khan for outing him to the Captain against his wishes, (it was obviously against his wishes or else the boy would have done it himself.) but Pavel was also slightly grateful. He was glad to have the decision taken out of his hands. The young officer was always fighting with himself when it came to a decision that was his wellbeing and happiness or someone else’s. Pavel seemed to always choose the latter, despite any unpleasant consequences.

So when the boy’s night rotation was drawing to a close and it came time for him to sit with the prisoner, Pavel had tried his best to smother the righteous anger that swelled up his throat and threatened to burst forth.

He failed.

Storming up to the plasma-glass, Pavel hissed, “How dare you! You had no right to do zat!”

The man stood steadfastly behind the glass and gave the boy his most impassive expression. “What am I meant to have not done?”

“Don’t give me zat! You know exactly what I vas referring to. Vere do you get off meddling in my life? Eet is none of your business!” Fire crackled in the boy’s eyes and Khan found himself pleasantly surprised by the boy’s spine.

Seeking to test his mettle, Khan raised an unimpressed, imperious brow and look a threatening step forward, allowing his expression to darken with a small hint of the violence he was capable of.

The boy did not cower as Khan expected. Instead, he took another step closer and jabbed the glass.

“I do not know vat you stand to gain from doing zis, but I vill not aid you in anysing zat vill harm my crew. I am a Star Fleet officer, and I vill not be manipulated in zis vay!” Pavel jabbed the plasma-glass emphatically.

Surprised, Khan felt his expression soften. He took a careful step toward the glass and placed a palm where Pavel’s finger still rested against its cool surface. The boy’s startled eyes met Khan’s and he dropped his finger and retreated a step.

“I had no ulterior motive, Pavel. I stood nothing to gain from ensuring that Sulu had a rather unpleasant journey home…. Well, not nothing. I took a great deal of pleasure from imagining the expression on his insipid little face. And, of course, any problems I can cause for Star Fleet are an added bonus. But, No. I am not using you for any nefarious purposes. There is nothing I stand to gain from ensuring that you will not be harassed by that disgusting little creature.

“Then vhy did you do eet? Zere has to be a reason.” Pavel said, returning to the edge of the glass enclosure.

“I took offense to his treatment of you. His proximity and noxious influence was dimming the brilliance that you exude from every pore, and I would not stand for it.” Khan said, darkly. “I am very protective of the things that I enjoy, and your presence has nearly single handedly made my stay in this prison bearable.”

Caught off guard by the unexpected praise, Pavel just stared at Khan for a moment. After an unusually long time of staring into those fathomless pools of silver and blue, Pavel seemed to shake himself. He straightened, assuming a military posture and said, “Whether or not it vas unwanted or even self-serwing, szank you.”

With that, Pavel turned on his heel and took his place at the terminal. After a moment, he looked up, curiosity shining in his pretty hazel-green eyes. But, after a moment, the boy went back to work on his PADD without asking the question that was so obviously plaguing him.

“You have a question. Ask it.” Khan Commanded.

Pavel hesitated. “Vell, I’m sure you realize zat if ze Captain watched ze footage of ze day I vas-“ Pavel broke off, then started again. “Eet is entirely possible zat zey heard you confess your real name and ze reason Admiral Marcus vishes you dead. Eet vas logical to assume zat you told ze captain about Sulu in order to have him ‘inadwertently’ come across ze information zat you could not tell him directly, or else risk him writing it off as a lie engineered to save your life.”

Khan regarded the boy with mild approval and raised an eyebrow, saying nothing.

Pavel continued, “But I beliewe you when you say you vere not plotting when you aided me. Zat information added to ze questions surrounding vhy you allowed yourself to be so easily captured in ze first place have lead me to beliewe zat you stand to gain ze most from being on zis ship. But vhy? Vat could ze Enterprise hawe zat could be so important to you zat you would risk death or imprisonment to get it?”

Khan was watching him closely now, his eyes narrowed in thought and his face tight, concealing some strong emotion.

“Ze next logical conclusion was zat you would be after something on ze ship zat vas not prewiously zere, and ze only objects of note zat hawe been recently acquired aboard ze Enterprize are ze 72 torpedoes provided to us by Admiral Markus.” Pavel pinned Khan with a surprisingly piercing look, the boy reading any and all telling emotion that Khan betrayed.

“Ze 72 torpedoes zat we hawe been expressly forbidden from examining.” Pavel said, “I hawe done a bit of research on ze records of one ‘Khan Noonian Singh’ over ze last couple of days, and ze only thing I had clearance to access vas the entry in ze Star Fleet Academy history texts that states ‘The Augment leader known as Khan Noonian Singh and the 72 other research subjects were locked in cryo-tubes and sent to the state-of-the-art, unmanned prison facility on a, now non-existent, space station orbiting Pluto’s largest moon.’ Zis information is woefully out of date, and it is my experience zat ze textbooks are only out of date ven ze gowernment steps in to keep a lid on certain bits of information.”

“It only takes a bit of speculation to come up vis the theory zat ze gowernment program zat created you vas kept under wraps to keep ze gowernent from taking ze blame for ze Eugenics War. Zey bottled you and your crew up nice and tight and placed all blame on your shoulders. Zat is not to say you are not guilty for all of ze things zey say you are, but a soldier should not take ze blame for following ze orders of his gowernment.”

Khan’s eyes were shining in approval. He nodded slowly and smirked. “Remarkable. I give you a name, and you manage to work out every single detail of the earth government’s most closely guarded secret since the development of time travel. But you aren’t done yet, are you?” Khan asked.

“No. During ze time you spent in, vat I am assuming vas forced, serwitude to Admiral Marcus you vere instructed to design a ship and new form of photon torpedo. Though I hawe seen no hints of a ship, ze 72 mysterious photon torpedos in ze ship’s cargo bay giwe me great reason to beliewe what I hawe found. So you are aboard zis ship in order to hawe ze most opportunities to liberate your crew from Federation custody and escape to some far reach of ze Alpha Quadrant to avoid anozer stint in cryo-statis.”

“Brilliant!” Khan’s eyes were shining in unabashed approval and he did not try to hide the grin that spread across his face.

“You may be the most brilliant young mind that I have encountered in the last 300 years. The sheer power of your deductive reasoning is immense. I did not think a normal human brain was capable of such intelligence.” Khan praised.

Pavel shot him a narrow-eyed and distrustful look. “You vill not rope me into helping you escape by showering me in insipid praise. I vill do nosing to compromise my ship and crew, no matter vat you say… howewer, If all I have guessed is true, I will aid you in conwincing ze Captain zat you are telling ze truth. All I can promise is zat ze Captain and Commander Spock vill not allow any breach in protocol to go unmentioned. If Admiral Markus has transgressed as I beliewe he has, zen zey vill do zere utmost to bring him to justice. Any attempt by you to escape judgment for your destruction in London will not be tolerated and I vill do my utmost to foil your plans.”

They shared an intense moment before Pavel retrieved his PADD from the terminal and left the room, his shift having ended nearly half an hour ago.

Khan watched him go, and once the doors had swooped closed behind him, allowed a fond smile to break over his face. Khan had thought he liked the boy’s mind before, but now he had been faced, not only with the boy’s far superior intelligence, but also his sheer backbone and unwavering loyalty. Khan had begun to worry that any plans he did make would soon have to be edited to ensure that the boy was included in his escape.

 

 

Spock had not been looking forward to staying up late to view the live feed of the prisoner’s cell that night. The lack of sleep was going to make tomorrow all the more unpleasant, but it was statistically likely that the boy and prisoner would convey some small piece of valuable information over the hour long shift that Pavel had taken.

He was not disappointed.

Good God. If what the boy had found was true, then their entire mission had been a thinly veiled and quite illegal assassination attempt. They may have been sent out for the sole purpose of disposing of any and all evidence of Admiral Marcus’ illegal activity.

With Pavel still on his night shift, and possibly too emotionally invested in the outcome of further investigations, Spock notified Bones and Carol of the mission to discover the contents of the 72 missiles sitting so unassumingly in the Enterprise’s cargo hold.

Spock was unsure whether he wanted Pavel’s theories to be proven or not. It would most definitely cause innumerable problems for the Enterprise and her crew if he discovered that Admiral Marcus had broken as many regulations as Pavel suspected. That coupled with the highly dangerous prisoner who seemed willing to do anything at all to get what he wanted, and there seemed to be quite a grim future in store for everyone, no matter the outcome of the investigation.

Yup. Spock needed more sleep.

 

 

Bones hated being woken up early. Don’t get him wrong. He didn’t mind it so much if someone’s life was on the line, but he was not an engineer. It was one hell of a statement as to how shitty the situation was that he was being chosen to take apart a highly classified experimental weapon.

Why was he awake again? Oh, imminent doom, blah blah blah. Christ, he needed coffee.

…………..

Of course the stupid missile tries to eat him and then nearly blows up in his face. He was glad it hadn’t because there was a frigging person in there! Now Bones understands why he was chosen for this ridiculous mission. The person was in a cryo-stasis tube. An ancient one. Three hundred year old technology was all that was keeping this poor bastard alive.

Bones honestly couldn’t care less who this bloke was or why he was strapped to a missile, but he needed to extract this cryo-tube from the missile as soon as possible.

Of course, that’s when it hits him.

There are 72 of these frigging things. Christ. Are there people in all of them? It was times like this that bones wished he had a fleet of well-trained medical aids to delegate to instead of the four ensigns who could barely operate a medical triquarder.

He and Carol shared a harried look and began the delicate process of extracting the tube from the missile. Three hours later, an exhausted but resigned Bones called Spock on his communicator.

“Well, you are now one missile down and one cryo-tube richer, for whatever that’s worth.” Bones said, tiredly. He knew he was going to spend the next 24 hour cycle on this planet disarming missiles, because wasn’t life just peachy?

Spock’s voice relayed the order he was expecting with nearly audible resigned tension. Well shit. That never meant anything good. Bones set to work, not asking (or wanting know) what this meant or what flavor of shit was about to hit the fan.

He just hoped that no one was going to die today.

 

 

Spock didn’t want to visit the prisoner, but he didn’t see any other option. Face to face interaction, though not his preferred method of interaction with terrorists, was the best method for extracting information via subtext and subconscious mannerisms.

From what Spock had observed earlier, Khan Noonian Singh would not prove to be a fount of information. Spock would even be a bit surprised if this conversation yielded any useful information at all.

This feeling was only intensified by the expression on the prisoner’s face as Spock entered the brig. He dismissed the officer on duty and stepped toward the glass, raising a slanted brow.

Neither spoke for several minutes as they took each other’s measure, cataloging every minute tell and slip of disinterested façade. Surprisingly, Khan spoke first.

“What?”

Spock cocked his head and raised his brow a bit higher. “I would think the reason for my presence was obvious.”

“Of course. You wish to extract information from me. You expect to fail. I’m bored with this already. Get out.” Khan ordered imperiously, brow furrowed infinitesimally in irritation.

The prisoner turned from the glass and gracefully sank onto his small cot, ignoring Spock’s presence completely.

Spock’s lips twitched. Perhaps he would gain something of use after all.

“You seem to be in an exponentially fouler mood this cycle than any other I can recall. I wonder at the reason.” Spock said, just to goad him. The Vulcan was well aware that Khan’s sour disposition was caused by the recent end to a particular Ensign’s night rotations.

Khan cut eyes at Spock but remained outwardly impassive.

“I can see that your better half is nearly entirely responsible for the information we have gathered so far.” Spock pressed. “I believe that any attempt at further discussion of prudent facts would be a wasted effort on my part, so I shall not try.”

Spock turned to leave.

“You are needed on deck 13.” Khan said as Spock exited the room.

The Vulcan froze and turned.

“Am I?”

Just then his communicator beeped. Spock narrowed his eyes and asked, “What do they need, then?”

“The female that is usually in charge of serving my meals, if you can call sliding a tray through plasma-glass with a six foot pole serving, has had a rather unfortunate accident that damaged her left ankle. Since she is quite allergic to most synthesized tissue repair compounds, she will be on bed rest for at least a week while her injury heals.” Khan explained.

Spock narrowed his eyes and exited the room before answering his communicator.

Jessica Lawrence had been in her quarters, cleaning her replicator when the heel in her right standard issue Star Fleet boot had buckled and she had fallen from a step stool and badly sprained her ankle, and she was, in fact, allergic to synthesized regenerative compounds.

Spock would almost laugh but for the suspicion that Khan had something to do with the woman’s accident.

………

When Spock arrived at the Sick Bay on deck 13, he went right to Commander Lawrence and the medical aid and demanded of both, “Is there any way that your boot was tampered with?”

After a long winded explanation from both women on how it was nearly impossible, even without video surveillance of the prisoner, Spock retreated from the room and made his way back to the brig.

“How did you know?”

“I observed.”

“And you did not see fit to warn her?”

“Why should I? She made no effort to hide her fear and disgust in regards to me, and I seek to gain nothing from aiding an insipid and ungrateful woman from the crew of my captors.”

“And yet you went out of your way to help Ensign Chekov.” Spock pointed out, almost triumphantly.

Khan seemed caught off guard by this observation and paused a moment to think over his actions and the reasoning behind them.

“I admire Pavel’s mind and like him as a person. I believe he returns the sentiment. That woman was nothing in comparison to Pavel. In any way.”

“Hmm.” Was all Spock gave in reply.

After a moment, the Vulcan said, “Well it seems you are in need of a new ‘day keeper’ in any case. I do hope the next one meets with your approval.” Spock finished sarcastically. He really was spending too much time with Kirk.

Spock left the room and proceeded to make arrangements for the next few days of their voyage. He hoped that all of his careful preparations were unneeded.

 


	4. One Hell of a Bad Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pavel proceeds to have the worst day he has had in quite a long time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is dedicated to Max, for breeding my plot bunnies and helping me mend my plotholes :)

Pavel was in his quarters, enjoying a rather large plate of roast and potatoes (or at least the best approximation that the replicator could supply) when his PADD beeped. The notification stated that he was now required (along with his duties as both a bridge officer and the acting Chief Engineer) to bring meals to the prisoner in the brig three times every cycle.

Pavel’s eyes narrowed as he thought this over. These orders reeked of something that Khan had set in motion. Pavel had just been relieved of his duties as brig guard the day before, and he would not put it past Khan to ‘remove’ the ensign currently serving his meals. Pavel sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. He would confront Khan about his obvious and heavy handed manipulations, but his shift on the bridge started in twenty minutes, and he didn’t want to start his work day in a bad mood.

Exactly eighteen minutes later, after cleaning up from his meal, showering, and donning his yellow shirt, Pavel sat at his terminal and began running the customary system diagnostic he began at the beginning of every shift on the bridge. After having _another_ verbal sparring match with the computer over his accent, Pavel resolved to change all of his access codes to fingerprint recognition in order to preserve his sanity.

Just as Pavel finishes implementing the necessary authorization codes, Spock approaches from his customary place behind Kirk’s right shoulder. Pavel wonders idly why the first officer doesn’t get a chair. He should submit the enquiry to the ships designers.

“Pavel, I’m sure you are curious as to the reason for your additional assignments.” Spock begins.

“No, Sir. Not really. I assumed zat Khan had decided he preferred my company to ze girl who openly derided him every time she vas in his presence zat I noted. I zen concluded he had perpetrated some plan to get rid of her and eizer you figured since I seem to be ze only one who has not been injured in his presence or he demanded me specifically. Eizer way, I will fulfill any duty given me zat falls wizin Star Fleet regulations.” Pavel had to suppress a smile at Spock’s (almost) surprised expression. “I would, however, like to suggest zat we do not give him what he wants. I understand your wish to prevent any furzer harm to ze crew, but-“

“Your concern is noted, Ensign, but I have little choice in the matter. You and I both know that Khan is only a prisoner on this ship because it serves his best interest. The girl you are replacing is not seriously damaged, and her injuries are not in any way a direct result of Khan’s interference. Your job is only to bring his meals and do your best to ascertain his motives.” Spock interrupted.

“But, Sir, I already know vat he vants. Ze only reason he cares anyzing about zis ship or Star Fleet in general is because he vants his crew. I’m sure you have seen ze security footage and know zat ze missiles contain ze 72 members of Khan’s crew. Zat is ze only thing on this ship he cares about. If he zinks for one moment zat we post a danger to him or his crew, he vill not hesitate to kill ewery szingle vone of us, Sir. We must be careful.” Pavel warned.

“I am aware of his situation, and I thank you for the insight. What I need to know is what he plans to do now that he is on this ship. I’m sure he has no intention of allowing us to charge him for his crimes. He is here to retrieve his crew. I intend to stop him before he harms any members of the crew.” Spock did not tell him that Bones had taken all 72 cryo pods out of the missiles, and (with Carol’s help) rearmed them. The Augments were sealed in cargo bay six and guarded.

Pavel finished his shift, he went immediately to his quarters and programmed the replicator. He was supposed to pick Khan’s meal up from the mess hall. He was served rations and water (the cook’s choice. He doesn’t like Khan very much). Pavel programmed two meals into the replicator and packaged the meals.

He was greatly rewarded by Khan’s surprise when he arrived.

“I was sure that the Vulcan would replace the girl with someone even more annoying just to spite me.” Khan said.

“Where would be ze logic in zat? You could easily get rid of zat ensign, too.” Pavel retorted.

“That is a rather large amount of food. I take it you will be joining me for this meal?” Khan raised an eyebrow.

“If you keep doing zat people vil mistake you for a Wulcan.” Pavel said, setting the tray down and punching in the code for Khan’s door.

“You are rather cheeky today.” Khan said, “What are you doing?”

Pavel looked up from the trey he was balancing, just inside Khan’s cell. He eyed Khan who had backed up to the opposite side of the room. After closing the sliding panel with his hip, Pavel walked over and placed the trey on the small table. He looked up in amusement and noted Khan was still keeping as much distance between them as possible.

“If you don’t vant it…” Pavel started.

“No! Of course I want it, but I don’t understand why you entered my cell. There were several other ways to place the food in here without putting yourself in danger.” Khan said.

“Am I in danger?” Pavel asked, innocently.

“Don’t be coy. You are far too intelligent for that.” Khan reprimanded.

“I vasn’t being coy. I have no reason to believe you vill harm me.” Pavel said, affronted. “You just spent quite a bit of effort to make sure zat I am in your presence on a regular basis. Zat and whoever replaces me won’t bring food nearly as good as I have provided.” Pavel smiled and pulled the lid off of the trey to reveal two plates of steak and crinkle fries with Kartesian punch and treacle tarts.

Khan tried valiantly to hide how much he wanted the food, but Pavel still noticed how he deepened his breathing to inhale the mouthwatering scent of roasted meat and spices.

Pavel took one plate and set it in front of the solitary chair at the table before taking his portion and plopping down unceremoniously on Khan’s Spartan bed. The boy was so busy tucking into his meal that he didn’t notice the strange look that the Augment gave him before stiffly moving to take his seat.

Several minutes passed in easy silence before Pavel’s PADD chirped urgently. The boy looked up from his treacle tart and met Khan’s eyes. Khan, without being asked, reached into Pavel’s bag, which he had abandoned by the entrance, and retrieved his PADD.

Pavel huffed an annoyed sigh when Khan looked over the screen without permission before handing the PADD over. “NO!” The boy exclaimed and began furiously working at the device, his food forgotten. “My calculations were perfect! Zere is no reason zat ze atmosphere should be destabilizing so rapidly, ze simulation has only been running for ze minimum of eight million years!”

Pavel looked up and jumped when he registered the close proximity of one pale eyes Augment over his shoulder. Khan had managed to crawl onto the bed beside Pavel and read over his shoulder without the boy noticing.

“This is a simulation of the terraforming device you have been working on?” Khan asked.

“Yes. Ze simulation has been running a projected outcome since yesterday, but eet says zat ze atmosphere vill only hold out for eight million years. Zat is at least two million years sooner zan I predicted. Ze nitrogen levels have risen much too rapidly and ze air is no longer breathable.” Pavel groaned and began rapidly typing and entire new string of data into the simulation. Khan stayed silent and observed the boy’s motions with keen interest. After fifteen minutes, Khan smiled as Pavel fixed the error in coding that Khan himself had only spotted a few moments before.

“Ha! Eet is nearly complete, now. Ze only test left to run is on a planet with eizer an unstable or minimal atmosphere!” Pavel grinned up at Khan and presented him with the PADD, proudly displaying his accomplishment. His smile fell a little before he said, “I’m so stupid for missing such an obwious mistake in ze coding. I should hawe caught zat long before my project reached ze simulation stage.”

Khan’s gaze sharpened and he was about so speak when Pavel’s PADD beeped in his hand, displaying an alarm that’s title proudly stated ‘RED SHIRT 5 EVA’.

“Five eva?” Khan read aloud. Pavel gasped and shot off of the bed, nearly taking Khan with him. He snatched the PADD (an impressive feat) and quickly packed the trey. On his way out of the cell’s door he called, “I’m due in engineering. Ze ship can’t function for long visout her Chief Engineer.” Pavel joked.

Pavel dropped the treys in the disposal unit before promptly stripping out of his shirt and rummaging in his bag. Khan, caught completely off guard by the smooth expanse of pale and muscled flesh he had been shown, stared silently as Pavel pulled a red uniform shirt from his bag and crammed the gold one inside along with the PADD. He shrugged the shirt over his head and turned to Khan, who had just managed to regain his composure.

“See you in a few hours!” Pavel smiled and dashed out of the room. Still thrown by the boy’s hasty exit and unintentional exposure, Khan whispered, “Five eva?”

 

 

Pavel spent a rather uneventful few hours in engineering repairing the damage from the leak that had temporarily stranded them on the edge of the neutral zone. It hadn’t taken Pavel more than an hour to patch up the damage, but long term repairs would take at least another day. He had slowly been fixing the damage over the last few days.

At the end of Pavel’s shift, he stopped on the bridge to check in with Spock. He was in the middle of a detailed report on the state of the warp drive when the ships proximity alert went off.

Pavel was just reaching his terminal when science officer at the communication terminal said, “Captain! I’m getting a reading I don’t understand, sir.”

Spock quickly left Pavel’s side and the boy turned to examine the readings on his terminal. He could understand them perfectly but he could understand the commander’s confusion. The terminal proclaimed that a ship had come abroad the Enterprise and was attempting to hail them from just off the port side.

Normally, these readings would be impossible, as the Enterprise (currently traveling at warp) was the fastest ship in the fleet. Pavel, however, had recently learned about a secret ship, designed off the books by a certain Augmented prisoner.

Kirk barked a command, and Pavel brought the transmission on screen. He had to fight to control his expression when Admiral Marcus appeared on screen. The admiral proceeded to berate Kirk for not following orders, and once he learned that the Captain was fully aware of Markus’ illegal activities, commenced an attack that blew the Enterprise out of warp and caused sensors and warnings to flash in rapid succession across his terminal.

Pavel reluctantly gave the terminal to the officer on duty and rushed over to Spock. “Sir, I have to go check on ze prisoner. Ze Admiral will try to take him to destroy all evidence of his crimes.”

Spock nodded and Pavel was off like a shot. He reached the brig in record time, flying through the doors and skidding to a stop before Khan’s cell. Which was open.

Pavel stalled for a moment before rushing to the open cell door. The panel over the lock had been removed and rewired from the inside. Pavel cursed and turned to leave, but he was tackled from behind.

Khan’s icy gaze bore into his for a moment before the hand around his throat tightened slightly. Pavel was so surprised he didn’t even resist, dangling limply from Khan’s grip.

“What are you doing here?” Khan hissed. “You are supposed to be on the bridge!”

Khan easily tossed Pavel onto the bed panel and proceeded to tie the boy’s hands with his bag strap. Finally deciding to fight back, Pavel hauled back and kicked Khan in the chest as hard as he could, but it did little to slow the Augment down.

After securing Pavel to the bed and reinstating the lock on the door (With significantly harder passcodes) Khan exited the brig, doing his best to ignore the shocked and betrayed look that had shined from Pavel’s eyes.

Pavel only allowed himself a few moments to wallow in his ineptitude before making his escape. The boy made quick work of the bag strap (honestly how insulting. He IS a star fleet officer after all) and was nearly done hacking the door when three men and a woman entered the brig.

Pavel spun to face the strangers, obviously not Star Fleet, by their lack of uniforms, and did his best to conceal his hands behind his back, still busy hacking the door despite being unable to see what he was doing.

“Who the bloody fuck are you?” Asked one of the men, this one short with sandy blond hair and dark blue eyes. The man stepped toward the glass and raked Pavel with an assessing gaze.

Pavel widened his eyes innocently and did his best to shrink is already small frame. He stuttered, “I-I’m Michel.” It only took Pavel a moment to realize who these people where and he took a silent second to admire Khan’s brilliance while simultaneously berating himself for not seeing the betrayal coming. He hated that Khan had gotten the jump on him when Pavel had been so worried for the Augment’s safety.

The blond took a step forward, his unfriendly expression looked strange on a face that seemed to be used to smiling. The man nodded and said, “John.” A slightly taller red-headed man stepped forward and demanded, “What the fuck are you doing in here kid? Where are the other prisoners? And what the hell is an Ensign doing in the brig anyway?”

Pavel took another moment to be thankful that all of his shirts proudly displayed his rank as an ensign and not his position as a bridge officer and the chief engineer. He covered his pause with a wide-eyed flail and cringed back from the intruders, still concealing the open panel behind him.

“I g-got caught nicking some parts from engineering and they locked me in here for the rest of the journey.” Pavel said in his most convincing (and adorably accurate) impression of Khan’s British accent, which he found much easier than the Central American accent that he had been working on perfecting (stupid voice recognition software). “W-who are you?” Pavel asked.

“Sorry, Michel,” John interjected, “It’s best if you don’t know that. Listen, are you the only prisoner on this deck?” He asked obviously referring to Khan.

“Y-yes. I don’t recall seeing anyone else. But I’ve only been here a few days.” Pavel stuttered.

The woman cursed and spun on her heel, pacing. She muttered, “Where the fuck is he? How are we supposed to find him on such a big ship?”

The group left, seeming to decide that Pavel (being a lowly ensign and a prisoner himself) was not worth their time.

Pavel sighed in relief and spun to finish decoding the lock. He was out in seconds, flitting silently across the metal floors of the brig and pulling a phaser from the terminal. Pavel set it on the maximum stun setting before moving to the doors and making his way carefully out into the hall.

In the minutes that Pavel had been locked in the brig, the ship seemed to have gone mad. Red warning lights flashed up and down the halls and Pavel had no way of knowing if they were caused by Admiral Marcus’ attack or the escape of the 72 Augments who were now, undoubtedly, systematically taking over the ship.

Deciding that the bridge crew was more than capable of handling the situation with the Admiral, Pavel took off down the corridor toward engineering and the weapons bay. He spent only a moment making sure that the torpedoes were still armed and ready before heading toward his quarters, narrowly avoiding the attention of several augments on his way.

After locking himself inside his quarters, Pavel opened his mutilated bag and pulled out his bridge officer uniform. He quickly changed shirts (hopefully the Augments from earlier would be slow to recognize him) and grabbed two more phasers and a blaster rifle he had stashed around his room, setting them all to maximum stun. (Shut up. He liked to be prepared.)

He was half way to the bridge to warn the Captain about the Augments when, for the second time today, he was talked from behind.

“You are a smart little wanker, you know.” John’s voice came from behind him. “Far smarter than most. It took me almost five minutes to realize that the bridge officer I was following was the kid from the brig.”

John slammed Pavel into the wall and took his bag, disarming him of his blaster and the phasers.

He smiled a warm and cozy smile that seemed wrong coming from the man who was holding to the corridor wall by his throat. (If his day kept up like this then he would be hoarse or voiceless come morning.)

“So which one of you is the lie?” John asked, “The Ensign locked away in the brig, or the Bridge Officer sneaking about the halls with a small arsenal? Who are you, boy?”

You know what? Fuck this. Fuck this entire day! First he finds out that Khan has manipulated him into spending even MORE time in the brig with him, then the enterprise is attacked, Pavel is assaulted by the man he had started to consider a friend, and now he is being assaulted AGAIN by another stupid British stupid Augment that has him by his stupid throat, and to top it all off, Pavel just remembered that his terraforming experiment has gone untended for at least seven hours.

Pavel snaps.

 

 

Before John can even react to the sudden change that flits across the boys hazel eyes, he is on his back. Somehow, the boy managed to wrap one pale ankle around John’s boot and send him toppling to the floor. In an instant, Pavel has kicked him onto his back and ripped what appeared to be an ancient projectile weapon from the back of the man’s pants. How the man had smuggled this ‘browning’ into his cryotube was beyond Pavel and he honestly didn’t give a fuck at this point.

Pavel shoved a knee into the augments spine and took a quick moment to examine the weapon. Easy. He looped his finger beside the firing mechanism of the device and released the switch labeled ‘safety’. The Augment’s stilled when Pavel placed the icy tip of the weapon against the man’s skull, just behind the ear.

“Be careful with that Michel. You don’t know how it works, and you might hurt someone on accident.” John pleaded, his hands up.

Seeing a tiny switch in the man’s stance, Pavel leapt out of arms reach kicking the bag with his phasers behind him.

“I know exactly how to operate this weapon,” Pavel said, sticking to his British accent. “Most objects designed to kill or incapacitate operate on the same basic principle.”

John turned toward him slowly, subtly changing his stance again, poised just on the edge of attack. Pavel did not give him the chance. Before John could blink Pavel threw the gun at the Augment, who caught it on reflex.

Pavel swiped the blaster up from the floor and John was stunned before the browning was even securely in his grasp.

Pavel quickly reclaimed the gun and stunned the Augment once more for good measure.

He had just reclaimed all of his items, and turned to continue to the bridge before two Augments rounded the corner. One of them was Khan.

The other was the red-head from the brig, and he seemed to recognize Pavel after only a moment.

“You are that little British twat from the brig!” The man exclaimed. “How the fuck did you manage to take out John?”

Over his shoulder, Khan raised his eyebrow at the word ‘British’. Pavel’s eyes hardened. He widened his stance and aimed a weapon at each of them, Blaster in one hand and gun in the other, and if the slightly deadlier weapon was aimed at Khan… well Pavel was having a bad day. Sue him.

“I’m sorry, but I cannot allow you to have free reign of the ship. The bridge is busy fending off Admiral Markus and I cannot let you distract them and possibly undermine the safety of this entire ship. Whatever you intend to do will have to wait until that conflict is over.” Khan looked considering for a moment before he masked his expression. The other Augment just looked confused.

“So you ain’t going to try to stop us?” He asked.

Pavel took a moment to look at him like the idiot he truly was before he said, “Of course I’m going to stop you, you imbecil, but I’m smart enough to know that you don’t leave anyone behind and if I manage to detain or incapacitate even one of you it will slow you down long enough for the Captain to get us out of this conflict with the Admiral.”

“Pavel why on Earth have you affected that horrible accent? What purpose does it serve?” Khan finally asked, barely containing his mirth.

Pavel dropped the act immediately (Kinda relived. It was getting irritating.)

“Eet vas to my adwantage ven I first met his group of Augments in ze brig, zat zey assume I vas an ensign who had no important knowledge about ze ship’s secret mission or ze whereabouts of ze Augment zey vere looking for.” Pavel said, in the thickest Russian accent he could manage, and it felt goooooood!

“Pavel? Russian? What the fuck?” That Augment was obviously shorted in the super smarts department, and Pavel shot Khan a look that perfectly communicated that thought.

He snorted.

Pavel had just decided to escape the two Augments and find easier prey when he felt a prick at the back of his neck. He spun just in time to meet John’s eyes before the Augment cold cocked him and the world wend dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do you guys even know how irritating it is to write Pavel WITHOUT his adorable accent? There are no words.


	5. Freedom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Khan finally gets what he has always wanted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would like to thank an equally enigmatic and anonymous commenter who has helped me breed my plot bunnies quite a lot over the last couple of days. Your suggestions were amazing and I will do my best to expand my characters and story to your satisfaction. Its a bit early to add your suggestions, but look out for them in the next few chapters. For now, you will have to be contented to a chapter that is slightly longer than usual, and the angst I promised.
> 
> This chapter is dedicated to Anonymous X3

Damn this kid was starting to become a nuisance. Khan shook his head at the limp form of the young ensign slung carelessly over John’s shoulder while he ignored Avery’s inexcusably idiotic questions. Khan often found himself imagining how stupid the man had to have been before his Augmentation to still be that intensely ignorant after the enhancements. He suppressed a shudder.

The trio of Augments split up and Khan turned down another corridor before coming to a stop at an air lock on the port side of the ship. As he intended, he came face to face with Captain Kirk himself.

After a short interlude in which Khan easily incapacitated the Captain and then succinctly convinced the man that they were needed to take over the Admiral’s ship, Khan suited up and, leaving Pavel in John’s capable hands, commenced the plan to board the USS Vengeance through an illogically ‘wee’ cargo bay door.

Kirk put up a valiant fight, but fell pitifully short when faced with Khan's immense strength. Khan gripped the edge of Kirks helmet seal and hissed, "You know that your plan will never work without my help. The minute calculations involved in making it into that cargo door are beyond your limited intelligence."

Kirk struggled for a moment before going limp and shooting a heated glare in the direction of the air lock.

Khan spared a moment to be glad he had ordered his Augments to hide instead of taking over the ship as they had originally planned so many hundreds of years ago. Avery and John were currently biding their time in the brig with a (still incapacitated) unexpected addition to the plan. Khan had to admit that he was impressed with the valiant fight that Pavel had put up. He had never expected that the small boy, no matter how good his Star Fleet training, could take down one of his crew in a fair fight. Before meeting the young boy he would have laughed at such a ridiculous notion.

Khan heaves a put upon sigh when he has to physically guide Kirk into the (illogically tiny) cargo bay door. Sometimes the Augment swore that if it wasn't for the man's Vulcan first officer, he would have died a long time ago. Khan did, however, know that Kirk was smart enough to figure out that Khan was assisting him for his own purposes. That was why Khan planned to incapacitate the Captain the instant Admiral Markus' crew was sufficiently crippled.

Khan was mildly impressed that the human had managed to get a man on Marcus' ship. He learns from context that this Scotsman was the man who Pavel had replaced. The man was loud and a bit strange but most of what he said made sense and was intelligent enough.

When the three reached the bridge, Kirk's man immediately stunned Khan. And damn did that sting, but Khan had recovered even before he hit the floor panels. He didn't show it, however, opting to fake his incapacitation until a more opportune moment to strike arose.

Khan had done his best since the end of the eugenics wars to keep his body count to a minimum, but the severe wrong that Markus had done to not only him and his crew, but also the entirety of Star Fleet was more than Khan could bear. It may be illogical, but Khan was placing immense blame on Marcus' shoulders for forcing him to put that look into Pavel's eyes. Khan wished desperately that he could forget the flash of hurt and betrayal that had dimmed the boys usually open and trusting expression. He had been so shocked by Khan's attack that he had not even thought to defend himself. Khan had even intentionally let him land the kick that the boy had aimed at his chest. He deserved that and much more for betraying the boy's trust.

Khan shook himself out of his thoughts and tuned back into what was going on around him. Kirk was holding a phaser on Admiral Markus, who was attempting to talk his way out of trouble with some macho passive aggressive bullshit. It wasn't working, but Khan could tell that Kirk was not going to harm the man, and he deserved harm. He deserved to burn, and Khan was going to make damn sure that he met his maker as soon as possible.

Khan lept from the floor and quickly disarmed both the Scot and the Captain, then seized the Admiral by his face.

"You!" Khan hissed. "You should have let me sleep!" Khan tightened his hold, but paused. He had vowed never to take another life except in self defense or in defense of those he loved, and this man posed a direct threat to everyone he cared about. He could not be allowed to live.

Khan tightened his hold until he felt the man's skull crumple beneath his fingers. He didn't gain any happiness or satisfaction from the man's death, but he was content with the knowledge that his family was all the more safe for his absence from this world. The man's daughter, having watched the whole exchange, screamed and cringed back when he leveled her with his intense gaze. He felt sympathy for the girl. He knew how if felt to have your entire world fall out from beneath you and to be betrayed by the one person who you thought you could trust above all others. Khan was lucky to have ever learned to trust again. He could not, however, bring himself to care for her. Everyone had problems, and hers sucked a bit more than most peoples, but she was alive, and he would do his best to ensure that she stayed that way into the immediate future.

Khan turned and seized Kirk by the back of the neck. Keeping pressure on his clavicle, Khan forced him before the comm screen and hailed the Enterprise.

The Vulcan answered and barely suppressed his dismay at Kirk's pained face. Honestly the two were so transparent.

"You have something that belongs to me, Vulcan. And I believe that I have something that you want as well. I swear to you that if you give me what I want that I will return your crew members to you unharmed and allow you to return to Federation space unmolested, but if you try to keep what is mine from me, I will not hesitate to kill every single one of you and walk over your cold corpses to collect my crew. You have sixty seconds to decide." Khan said.

"I regret to inform you that our transporters are not-" The Vulcan started.

"Fortunately mine are perfectly functioning. Drop. Your. Shields." Khan cut across him.

The Vulcan ground his teeth a moment before walking to the CON and lowering the shields.

Khan quickly located the signatures he wanted and beamed them aboard the ship, and quickly deposited all of the federation members, including the Admirals corpse, onto the Enterprise, in a cell in the brig.

Before the Enterprise had even had time to raise it's shields, Khan had spun the Vengeance and kicked her into maximum warp. They would put several days travel between them and the Enterprise before they had the ship repaired enough to get over warp factor one. Khan relaxed for the first time in almost three hundred years.

　

　

Pavel woke to a huge commotion. He was in sick bay and Bones was hovering over him with an irritated expression.

Wait.

That wasn't Bones. Who was that? Pavel shook his head to clear it, and regretted it immediately. His vision swam and is was several seconds before he dared to open his eyes again. When he did, the man from before was gone. The room was empty, but only for a moment.

John stepped through the rooms transparent sliding doors with a smile. "I'm glad to see you are feeling okay. I was a bit worried at how long you stayed unconscious, but then I got you back here and ran some scans. I'm a bit concerned, kid. My scans show that you have been depriving yourself of sleep. According to this," John said, gesturing to a medical display above Pavel's head, "Your brain hasn't logged REM sleep in over four days. And, that's just plain unhealthy, kid. You need to take better care of yourself."

"Pavel." The young ensign said.

"Hmm?" The Augment looked up from his triquarter screen.

"My name isn't kid. It's Pavel. Just because all of you are ower zree hundered years old doesn't mean zat I am a child." Pavel corrected, glaring. "And where am I? Zis is not ze Enterprise. Have you kidnapped me?"

"Pavel, then." The man conceded. "And yes, I believe we have. You missed quite a bit of action while you were out. Khan, with the very reluctant aid of Captain Kirk, infiltrated the USS Vengeance and incapacitated the crew. He then used the Captain and several other members of Star Fleet as leverage to force the Enterprise to drop it's shields, allowing Khan to beam all of us aboard the Vengeance in exchange for his hostages. So, welcome aboard. I'm the Doctor, but don't call me Doc. John or Doctor will do."

"But he can't do zat!" Pavel shouted, dismayed. "I am a member of Star Fleet! I hawe a job to do, and I don't vant to be here!"

"It's a bit late for that, now." The Doctor said, frowning. "I'm sorry that you don't want to be here, but our Captain wanted you here, for whatever reason. There is no going back, now. The Enterprise was quite incapacitated when we left, so they will be delayed in any pursuit by several days. According to Khan, the first officer, Spock, was aware of your interactions with Khan, and there will be no sign of a struggle found on any surveillance the ship has. Avery, for all his idiocy, is quite good with computers. Your crew, though they may be disinclined to believe it, will report that you defected or were killed in the battle with Admiral Marcus. Either way, they will not come looking for you."

Pavel looked up at the short man, searching him for the truth that was right before his eyes. His vision wavered, and the boy was confused for a moment before he realized that he was crying. Big tears spilled over his cheeks and his hazel eyes clouded with misery. He sobbed.

The doctor, looking quite uncomfortable, patted the boy awkwardly on his shoulder and said, "Come now. It's not as bad as all that." When Pavel only sobbed louder, he cursed. "Bloody hell, kid! I don't know what to tell you. I mean, it's not like you are a prisoner. Khan assigned you the first mates quarters, (much to the rest of the crew's chagrin) and you can come and go as you please. You can even keep your weapons and stuff." The man gestured to Pavel's dirty and abused bag that now contained three phasers, a blaster rifle, his PADD, a red shirt, and a disk with every credit the boy had to his name stored on it.

Pavel had to admit that seeing the bag made him feel a hell of a lot better, but not much was going to console him. He was wallowing in the fact of his ruined career and lost life aboard the Enterprise when the glass doors swished open and Khan, himself stepped into the room.

Pavel glared at him through the tears in his eyes and, before he really processed what he was doing, Pavel sprang from the cot and was pounding his fists into the Augment's broad chest.

"Zis is your fault!" Pavel sobbed. "Why did you do zis to me? Why didn't you just leawe me zere?" Pavel's tears wet the front of Khan's shirt as the boy's energy flagged and he sank into the Augment's chest, gripping his shirt and sobbing."

Khan looked down at the boy with soft eyes and a small, unhappy frown. "I had to." Khan said, running a hand over the boy's unruly blond curls. "You are much to smart for your own good. You have come to know me too well over the last few weeks, and I could not take the risk that you would be able to predict my movements and lead the Federation to me and my crew." Khan rationalized.

He sighed. "But, I also took you because of your mind." At this Pavel looked up at the Augment through his watery hazel eyes, confusion evident in his pale wet face. "You are far more intelligent than any human I have met since even before my augmentation. You are smarter than even I was as a human. That talent was not something I could let go to waste working under the tyranny of such a flawed structure as that of the Federation."

"Eet is not flawed!" Pavel objected. "Admiral Marcus vas a horrible person, zat is true, but ze Federation stands for freedom and equality among all societies. Zey are focused on exploration and learning about all of ze ozer ciwilizations out zere. Just because one person tried to abuse his power does not mean zat zey are all bad."

"Be that as it may, you are here now, and I cannot risk the safety of my crew by taking you back. I'm sorry but you will just have to make yourself a place here." Khan pulled away from the boy, who had been unaware of the strangely intimate position they had been standing in. Khan had been holding Pavel cuddled into his chest with his hand stroking over the boy's head, his the other arm encircling Pavel's waist. (John, however, had noticed and was giving the two speculative looks from his place in a corner of the sick bay.

"The computer will direct you to your quarters. You are free to come and go as you please, but you will not be permitted to access any vital ship components or communication centers until you have proven that you will not attempt to contact Star Fleet. Your belongings will be returned to you. I suggest that you stay armed at all times. Augments are solitary by nature, and some members of my crew may feel threatened by your presence. I am confident in your ability to protect yourself, but if you ever need assistance, the ship will be monitoring your vital signs and will inform me if you are in any danger." Khan said, and turned on his heel and exited the sick bay.

Pavel sniffled and looked around the room. The color scheme of the USS Vengeance was black and gunmetal grey. It was a startling contrast to the Federations usual standard of white and chrome. It only served to further highlight Pavel's situation, and he quickly averted his gaze. He gave a mumbled farewell to the doctor and exited the sick bay. At the nearest terminal, he instructed the computer to show him to his quarters then followed the little white dots that flashed down the appropriate corridors. And if silent tears leaked down the boys face for the rest of the night, well no one was there to witness it.

It was a rough night. Pavel was plagued by dreams of his former ship mates. Each one was a vivid splash across his mind. He was assaulted by images of his friends, jeering and snarling in hate and betrayal while Pavel sobbed and cowered, shouting his innocence to deaf ears. He woke in a sweat only three hours later, tears still streaming down his cheeks. Pavel curled into a ball, as tight as he could manage, and sobbed. It was interesting. You would think that a body could only cry so many tears. As small as he was, he seemed to hold an illogically vast number of them. He should have long since run dry, but every time he thought that maybe he was done with his show of weakness, a fresh wave of tears would stream down his face and soak into his shiny black sheets.

Everything was black on this ship. Even the Augments he had seen, most of them either averting their gazes or shooting him heated glares, had all been dressed in similar (if weirdly skimpy) black garments. Pavel had begun to hate the color. He missed the glaringly white halls of the Enterprise. He had only been on the Vengeance for a few hours and already he ached for the familiarity of those sterile halls and the crew who all seemed to have something urgent to rush to or from. Pavel knew that he wasn't important in the big picture. Everything he had done could have been done by someone else. The only thing of note he had ever done was a bit of luck with the transporter, and now that Scotty was a part of the Enterprise crew, there was no real place for Pavel. He was replacable, and he doubted that they even looked for him, assumeing he had gotten himself killed in the scuffle.

Pavel wiped his face and turned over in his too large, strange bed. He knew that there would be little sleep happening here for the rest of the night. Sighing, he flopped onto his back and stared around the dark cavernous expanse of the first officer's quarters. Sighing again, he rolls off the bed and pads over to the bathroom. The lights come on autimatically, blinding him. "Shit." Pavel murmurs, covering his eyes.

No. He could take this. Pavel was done crying. He did not choose this, but he would take what he was given and run with it. His father had taught him a long time ago that crying over your pain and circumstances would get you nothing but more pain. Pavel slammed his fists against the bathroom counter and shoved the last tears from his eyes.

There would be no more crying. Pavel was stuck here with these Augments, and if he had to spend the rest of his life here, then he would make the best of it. He wirled around and stalked out of the bathroom. Going to his bag, Pavel grabbed his red shirt (the biggest contrast to the black and gray of the ship he could think of) and yanked it over his head. Stalking from the room, Pavel crept down the hall and slipped into the first door he came to.

The room was dark. Much darker than the rest of the ship, not even the minute light of of the stars through the windows lit the room. Pavel leaned against the wall and began to carefully feel his way around the edge of the undefined space. He had to start his exploration somewhere, right?

　

　

Khan woke to the sound of his door swishing open, almost silently. The dim light from the hall flooded in for only a moment before the doors closed again.

Instantly alert, Khan froze. Moving silently, he slipped off of his bed and moved stelthily to the small figure slowly eeking along the wall of his room. It was obviously Pavel. Any member of his crew would have done a much better job of sneaking up on him. Khan could see the boy clearly, even in the pitch black room. He regarded Pavel for a moment. The boy was remarkably silent for someone he knew couldn't see more than an inch in front of his face.

Khan leaned in and examined him. His eyes were still swolen from crying and he had dark circles under his eyes from lack of sleep, but he had a fire and determination shining from them that Khan couldn't understand. Khan was surprised that the boy had come to terms with his situation so fast, but that did not explain what the boy was doing in Khan's room so late at night. He was too smart to think that he could harm Khan in any way. The boy might be able to take John in a fair fight, but Khan was the Augment's leader for a reason. There was no way that Pavel would think this was the best thing to do.

Perhaps the boy could see more than Khan had first thought, because Pavel reached out, his palm comming to rest on Khan's bare chest. Pavel gasped and jerked his hand back.

"Who ees zere?" The boy said, tensing.

"Is that not my question to ask? You were the one who walked into my quarters uninvited. What are you doing?" Khan asked.

"Your quarters?" Pavel yelped.

"The room right next to the first officer's quarters is always the Captain's quarters. Quite the design flaw in my opinion. Star Fleet is a bit too tradition oriented. That does not, however, explain your presence at such a late hour." Khan said, crowding Pavel into the wall.

"I- I-" Pavel stuttered, shrinking away.

Khan frowned and examined Pavel's expression. His eyes were averted and his shoulders had drooped.

He was afraid.

But why? What had Khan done to make him feel threatened? He had never hurt the boy.

But someone had. The realization struck Khan like a blow. Someone had hurt Pavel so badly that even a hint of dominant behavior put the boy on the defensive. Khan would go so far as to think that, had there not been an impenetrable barrier between them, Pavel would never have allowed himself to trust Khan even the little bit that he had.

Shit. And Khan had attacked him. Sure, he had done his utmost to ensure that no harm came to the young ensign, especially from Khan, but if the boy had been abused in some way, even that small betrayal while they made their excape from Star Fleet, was more than enough to break the fragile trust that they had built.

Khan took a step back. "Computer, Lights on dim."

Low, soft light flooded the room. Pavel still refused to took at Khan and as the silence stretched between them, Khan regarded the boy again. He seemed to be more in tune with Pavel than anyone he had ever met. It was a mystery how the boy had come to matter to him in such a short time.

"What were you doing?" Khan asked staring at the wall beside Pavels head. He couldn't stand to see that uncertain look on the boy's face.

"I couldn't sleep. I vas just exploring. You said zat I could go wherewer I wanted, so..." Pavel trailed off.

Khan shot him an amused smile. "I didn't expect you to start with my quarters, but I suppose that now you are here, you may as well look around." Khan gestured to the room in invitation.

Pavel blushed and looked around, taking in the rumpled sheets and clothes strewn on the floor.

Surprised, he blinked up at Khan and asked, "Why is eet so messy? I would expect you to be um-" he blushed and trailed off.

"I used to be." Khan said, amused. "But I spent enough time in Earth's military, keeping my space the way I was told, that I vowed when I gained my freedom that I would live the way I want. Regulations be damned."

Pavel looked up, finally meeting Khan's eyes. "You were in ze military?"

"Of a sort." Khan sighed. "I don't like to think on that time. It was very unpleasent for all of the Augments. I would keep your questions about it confined to either John or myself. The others may be upset by your inquiries."

"Of course!" Pavel said. "I would hate to bring up any bad memories. If eet makes you uncomfortable zen I will not ask."

"You may ask me any question that occurs to you. Take advantage. It is not a liberty that I allow many to have." Khan said.

Pavel gave a shy smile and continued his exploration of Khan's quarters. There was a pile of clothing by Khan's replicator, neatly stacked and equally skimpy (just like the clothes he saw some of the other Augments wearing). Curious, Pavel picked up a shirt from the top of the pile and examined it. It was made of a sheer, gossamer black fabric, designed more to acentuate ones chest than to cover it. Pavel turned to Khan and raised an eyebrow.

"We decided, shortly after we liberated the USS Vengeance, that we would shirk any and all human customs that we could. A small way to one up the humans that had oppressed us so long ago. Our clothing will be wildly inappropriate (at least in a military point of view), so I suggest you acclimate yourself to any strange sights. We will not curb our need to assert our freedom to appease your delicate sensibilities." Khan said.

"You are a grown man, Khan." Pavel said. "You may dress howewer you wish. Eet is not my place, or anyones for zat matter, to tell you how to liwe your life."

A tiny thrill went through Khan's chest. Pavel used his name with such familiarity. It was a right not even some of his crew could claim. He feared that he was growing far to attatched to this boy.

"Likewise. You are free to dress however you please. I will not dictate any part of your life. You are as free within the ranks of the Augments as any member of my crew." Khan said.

"Am I?" Pavel murmured to himself, smiling sadly.

Khan stalked forward and seized Pavel by the face, forcing him to meet Khan's eyes. "You are. If anyone tries to convince you otherwise, I will correct them." Khan said. "Your freedom is only limited outside this ship. Until you prove to me that you will not betray us to the Federation, I cannot allow myeslf to give you the freedom you desire."

Khan released Pavel and took a step back. "I know how much your crew meant to you, and any loyal member of the Federation would turn us in to Star Fleet in an instant. I cannot take the risk."

Pavel's eyes misted, but he refused to cry anymore.

Khan looked away, hating the hopless look in his eyes. "Look..." He hesitated, strangely unwilling to extend the deal he had come up with. He sighed heavily and said, "Give it three weeks. If you still want to return to the Federation so desperately, then we will drop you on the nearest M class planet and, after we have gotten far away, you may contact Star Fleet."

Pavel stared up at him in shock. "You would let me go, just like zat?"

"You are not a prisoner. I dislike repeating myself, and I know you were smart enough to understand the first time. That only leaves the explination that you think I am lying to you." Khan said, peeved.

"Am I supposed to beliwe eweryszing you say?" Pavel asked, glaring up into Khan's equally heated expression. "Why should I? You hawe giwen me no reason to! Ze one time I thought zat I might begin to trust you, you tied me to a cot in your cell wiz my own bag! How dare you act offended wheen I am only showing common sense. Only an idiot would trust someone like you! Eet was stupid of me to even szink zat you could care about anyone but yourself!"

Khan growled and crowded into Pavel's space. "Someone like me? And what, exactly, do you mean by that? I have never lied to you! I told you exactly who I was and what I wanted from the very beginning!" Khan snarled. "It is your stupid little sentamental drivel that caused you to be blindsided in the first place. My crew is my family and they are paramount. You are nothing compared to that. Nothing!"

"I know!" Pavel roared back, shocking Khan, who expected him to cower like he and every other person faced with Khan's wrath usually did. "I know I am noszing! I have been told how worthless I am szince ze moment I was old enough to understand ze words! I do not need you to teach me how stupid and weak and paszetic I am! Eet has been beaten into me szince I was a child."

Pavel lost steam, then. He averted his gaze. Eyes closed, he failed to realize how close he was to the Augment, who had suddenly lost all of his anger as well. Faced with the revelation that it was Pavel's parents, the only two people in the world who a person could truly trust, who had put that defeated and frightened look on the boys face.

Khan suddenly felt murderous. How dare those slimy bastards, whoever they were, taint such a brilliant spark of intelligence. Pavel's only weakness was his lack of confidence in himself, and Khan would do anything to fix that.

"Three weeks." Khan said, and Pavel flinched.

"Are you so eager to get rid of me?" Pavel asked. "Why did you even take me in ze first place?"

Ignoring his question, Khan said, "In three weeks time, you will decide whether or not you wish to stay." He paused and took a deep breath, before continuing on. "And if you stay, I have a proposition for you."

Khan turned and stalked from his quarters, leaving Pavel feeling bewildered and a bit uncomfortable. Pavel quickly left Khan's quarters in search of the sick bay. He knew there was little chance of him getting any more sleep tonight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew. Well that was an emotional roller coaster! Is anyone else strangely aroused by Khan's scary/sexiness?


	6. Augmentation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Poor Pavel just can't get used to being on this ship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is a crud load of backstory and exposition in this story and a bunch of it is in this chapter. I feel like there might be a few chapters like this in the making, but I'm trying to take this slow and fully explore all of my characters. Trust me there is much story left to go.

Khan entered the bridge with a sensation he hadn’t felt in quite a long time. Sure he felt triumph and a sense of liberation that he had not experienced in more than 300 years, but this particular sensation was actually a burgeoning headache that was so rare amongst the Augments.

He wasn’t sure how to handle the unstable ground he was on with Pavel. He was so out of practice with things as complex as emotions. It was a strange feeling for him, this helplessness. Now was not he time, however, so Khan sucked it up and took charge.

“Captain on the bridge”, Joachim, his first officer said, with a cheeky smile.

Khan shot him a glare before taking his seat. He hated that his crew insisted on a structured system. If he had his way, they would be as feudal as the Klingons.

Three hundred years ago, the US and British alliance corroborated to enact what they called ‘Project Augment’. They selected five hundred individuals from various backgrounds and specialties to participate in what they called ‘potential screening’. Supposedly, if all of them met expectations, they would be given positions in prestigious positions in the government.

You can imagine their dismay when the seventy-five men that they chose as the premium of the group were unceremoniously abducted from their homes and shipped off to a top secret lab in Colorado, of all places.

Those men were put through the most intense and rigorous genetic manipulation that the scientists could manage. Nearly every gene and chromosome in their bodies was tweaked and worked around so that they could be ‘optimized’.

When the men and women next regained consciousness, they were so changed (in almost every way but in their looks) from who they used to be, that some of them nearly went insane from the trauma. The seventy-five were now seventy-four, as one of their group didn’t make it through the rigorous reformation.

They were grouped together by the scientists and told that they were no longer people. They were the property of their prospective governments, and were to do as they were told. As expensive as their ‘augmentation’ was, they were expendable. The scientists would not hesitate to put them down and start over if they did not obey.

After years of rigorous training and conditioning, the Augments were deployed in the first battle of what would be later known as The Eugenics Wars. The horrors that the Augments were forced to commit over the next years would scar the planet for centuries to come. The countries that were responsible buried their involvement, and the Augments that they had created were condemned for the acts that haunted their every waking moment. All fault was laid on the shoulders of the seventy-three Augments that survived the bloodshed.

The Augments were locked away in prison for nearly twenty years before the cryo industry took off. They were sealed in pods and shipped out in the first transport to the newest space prison, where they were forgotten for nearly three hundred years.

They and been through a lot.

One night, in their fourth year on the front lines, the Augments had gotten together and made a pact. After duking it out (a welcome release from all of the stress and tension of their horrible situation) they chose Khan to be their leader, much to his chagrin. He was already under so much pressure. Just staying alive was nearly impossible, but he sucked up all of his complaints and assumed the mantle of leadership that was given to him by his people. He didn’t want the responsibility, but he would be damned if he let the Augments down like everyone they had ever trusted had let them down.

Khan hated being the leader of the Augments, but every time he saw the confidence that his people had in Khan’s ability to keep them safe, the burden got a tiny bit easier to bear. So, when every member of his crew that was on the bridge looked up at his entrance with joy on their faces, Khan only smiled and took his seat. His glare far less heated than he meant it to be.

Once again, Khan took everything that he was feeling, and all of his issues with Pavel and buried them down deep to be looked at later. They had a lot of work ahead of them. The Augments were, for all intents and purposes, a new race. A race that had already made so many enemies. The enormity of the task before him threatened to overwhelm Khan, but he thought of the faith that those seventy-two people had put in him.

They believed in his ability to protect them, and so far they hadn’t been wrong. The greatest beings that science could create believed that he was the best of them all, and despite his feelings on the matter, Khan was going to make damn sure that they all saw the freedom that they had been dreaming about for so long. Cryostasis is an antiquated concept now. And it was for a very good reason.

When scientists (the word is thought by all of the Augments with quite a lot of derision) presented Cryostasis as a form of preservation to the public, they claimed that a person who was frozen in cryostasis didn’t change. They did not feel, or dream, or think. One was supposed to be entirely unaware of the passage of time.

The cocksuckers lied.

The Augments had been aware of each and every second that passed while in stasis. They could not move or speak, but they were very much awake for the experience. Lesser minds would have been driven insane. In fact, many were. Fifty years after the introduction of Cryostasis, the Eugenics Wars were long over. The Augments had been blamed, imprisoned, and exiled. The world had rebuilt itself from the ashes of its many grievous mistakes.

Scientists deemed it was time to wake all of those who had chosen to sleep through the mayhem. Those few who made it into the Cryotubes were the wealthy elites who had started the whole mess in the first place.

Perhaps, then, it was a blessing that the cryotubes were so flawed. Each and every person that successfully woke from the cryosleep (for there were many who did not) had been driven completely and irrevocably insane. Many remained catatonic, their bodies having forgotten how to function after so long being locked in their minds.

The government, as governments are wont to do, obviously covered this huge error up. The cryostasis tubes were publicly deemed antiquated technology, and politicians did their best to toss the technology into the technological back hole that many inventions got lost in.

It didn’t quite work, however. For several years after the discovery of the ‘sleep madness’ as it was termed, the cryotubes were used as torture devices and as punishment for prisoners. The world had long forgotten about the seventy-three prisoners that had been banished to sleep forever in a prison in space. (Well obviously not everyone, as Markus seemed to stumble across the information easily enough.)

 

 

Khan shook himself out of his thoughts and forced himself into the role of Captain.

“Joachim.” He greeted his closest friend and first officer. He was one of the youngest of the Augments, so it was strange that none of the others objected to his positon of power. (Not really though, they aren’t a very ambitious lot, if you haven’t noticed.) The boy had the particularly fascinating misfortune of being the son of another of the Augments. Through sheer coincidence, both he and his father were chosen to participate in the Augment program. The young man’s father was killed protecting his son’s life during the Eugenics Wars. Ever since, Joachim had stuck as close to Khan’s side as the prickly Augment would allow, and they had developed a friendship of sorts. Only Khan seemed to understand Joachim’s strangely dry (and kind of twisted) sense of humor.

“What’s up, Captain my Captain?” Joachim called merrily from his wholly inappropriate position perched on top of the sensor terminal. (He was quite in the way of the poor Augment trying to use the panel, but he didn’t care enough to ask Joachim to move.)

“Put me on the comm” Khan ordered Tivani, the girl at Pavel’s usual station. When she nodded signaling he was live, Khan said, “Augments. Though the events of the last twenty-four hours may seem like a victory, our work has just begun. In the course of our escape, we have made quite a few enemies, and for that I apologize. But, it was unavoidable. No race is without its adversaries, and we will be no different.”

Khan stood and began to pace slowly around the bridge. (The chair made him kind of uncomfortable.)

“Our next tasks will be even more difficult, but before we delve into new depths, I would like to thank you all. I am proud of all of you for keeping your heads through the tremendous ordeal that we all endured. The plan that we made on that dusty battlefield so long ago was flawed, but you all coped magnificently.” Khan smiled to himself. They would never have imagined that, after three hundred years of imprisonment, they would be freed into such a strange and advanced new world, but his crew had hit the decks running.

While Khan had been under the watchful eye of the late Admiral Marcus, he had built the man a ship and weapons, and by now all knew that he had snuck his crew members into the torpedoes. What no one knew was that each torpedo had been outfitted with a timer that ran completely separate from the missiles’ mechanism.

Each cryotube was set to open after exactly two weeks had passed from the time of their insertion. Even as Khan was surrendering to Captain Kirk, the long reanimation process was beginning in each of the cryotubes. The technology was so foreign and antiquated that the doctor failed to notice the process, even as he removed each and every pod from the missiles. Their convenient and isolated placement was just a stroke of luck, honestly.

The Augments easily incapacitated their guards and spent as much time as possible familiarizing themselves with the star ship, disguised as members of the crew. With all of the commotion involved with the warp malfunction and Admiral Marcus’ subsequent attack, there was little time for the crew to notice anything was amiss. Several of the Augments were still a bit rusty with the new modern mechanisms, but Khan had been awake long enough to master nearly all skills required to run the ship, and was able to help where his crew fell short. Shortly after Khan escaped his cell, his went looking to set him free. Honestly, they should have known he could handle it. If Admiral Marcus hadn’t chosen that moment to attack, it could have all gone horribly wrong. Khan shuddered to think how easily all of his hard work could have fallen through.

“Our first task is to find a place to call home. All races need a home planet. The Vengeance is a beautiful ship, but she will only get us so far. Already we are cramped together in a ship that was designed to be operated by a minimal crew. I split you into groups yesterday for this exact reason. Alpha group will commence a search of all systems at the edge of the Alpha quadrant that contain no M class planets. We want to be as far away from other forms of life as possible. Beta group will begin refitting the ship for occupation.

I know that a number of you are currently sleeping in the cargo bays, and I wish to remedy that as quickly as possible. Cargo bays one and two will be converted into living quarters. Honestly this stupid ship doesn’t need twelve cargo bays anyway.” Khan said

“Gamma group. I need you to meet up with Pavel and myself at 08:00 hours to discuss the logistics of a plan I am working on. You have your orders.” Khan cut the transmission himself, then turned to look at Joachim. The man was giving Khan a strange look, but said nothing as he hopped off of the terminal, and left the room. As the leader of Alpha group, he had a lot of work ahead of him, and would be spending quite some time in the ship’s star lab. (I’m picturing this huge observatory thing. There is something like it in either Next Gen or Voyager. I can’t remember which.)

Khan returned to his chair and ordered Velacion, the Augment currently manning the navigations terminal, to set a course for the edge of the Alpha quadrant. It would be a couple of days before they reached their destination, and Khan had a feeling that they couldn’t get there soon enough.

 

 

Pavel was startled out of his very detailed (almost invasive) examination of the ships creepily abandoned science lab by the sudden striking thought that he hadn’t encountered a single member of the crew in his explorations that day. The boy had no idea why none of the Augments were there, but he counted his blessings. He didn’t know how he would react when faced with one or more of the Augments for a prolonged period of time, and he preferred to put the experience off as long as possible.

Pavel was busy gleefully plugging his newest data from the terraforming experiment into the deliciously advanced computers when a sadly nostalgic sound fluted through the air. He was suddenly struck with the fact that this was a Federation ship. There were so few similarities with the ship he was used to that Pavel almost forgot. That sound (the cute little beepy wistly thing that signals an announcement over the comm) brightened Pavel’s day just the tiniest bit.

Khan was giving an announcement, and Pavel didn’t understand his reaction. He had known since before he had even met the man that Khan was the leader of the Augments, but hearing his voice rise and fall as it echoed throughout the cavernous ship suddenly brought his position into focus. For some reason, Pavel couldn’t really picture Khan as a leader. Sure he had the Aristocratic bearing, and that perpetually superior air about him but something told Pavel that those traits were just a part of who Khan was. He seemed like way too much of a loner to surround himself with the responsibility of leadership. There was so much that Pavel didn’t understand about the man, and probably never would.

The ensign was jerked out of his thoughts by the mention of his name. Apparently, Khan needed him for something. That suited Pavel just fine, honestly. If he was being useful, then there was even less reason for Khan’s crew to hate him. Pavel had no idea what he could contribute to anything the brilliant Augments were working on, but he would do his best not to be a burden.

Pavel finished coding the computers and was cheerfully typing notes on his PADD when the doors swished open. Pavel honestly missed the old fashioned manual doors he’d had in his apartment on earth. There was something a bit more intimate and yet formidable about them. People were more inclined to ask permission before entering a room if the doors didn’t automatically open for anyone who stepped near.

Pavel did not recognize the people that stepped through the doors. (Why would he?) There were three of them in total, and they were all equally surprised to find the room occupied. Pavel shifted awkwardly and gripped his PADD a bit tighter.

“Hello.” He greeted. “I’m Pavel.”

The youngest of the group stepped forward. “We know who you are.” The man seemed vaguely familiar, his American accent startlingly different from the English lilts he had been subject to since his capture, but that was impossible. Pavel had only met four Augments to date, and none were in this trio. “My name is Joachim. These are Kiwana and Abdul.” He said gesturing to his companions.

Pavel smiled at them nervously, but was met only with blank stares. Not sure how to react, Pavel said, “Khan said I had run of ze ship. I vas just using ze computers to run some coding zat I formulated.”

One of the Augments jerked at such an informal reference to their leader, but made no mention of it.

“You may do what you will with the computers. This room will only be utilized when absolutely necessary.” Joachim did not explain why, and Pavel did not ask. “You may remain in this room, however we may be required to interrupt your experiment.” The man said the word with evident disdain.

“Sure, I only need ze one computer. Ze simulation is complete, I am really only running it szrough ze computer because all of my obswerwations of eet so far were done on my PADD. I figured seeing eet on a larger and more detailed scale would help me to spot any flaws eet might have.” Pavel snapped his mouth closed, feeling as if he had been rambling like an idiot.

The impression he made was quite the opposite, however. Joachim’s expression lightened. “I have no idea what you are talking about, but try and keep your sciency shit to yourself okay? Most of us have been conditioned to hate scientists on sight, so spouting genetic formulas won’t make you any friends.”

The man shook his head and laughed under his breath. “It is just like Khan to finally make a friend and have it be a friggin scientist.”

“Um, I’m not zat kind of scientist.” Pavel said. “On ze enterprise, I vas in charge of seweral szings but I newer spent any time in ze genetics laboratory. I spent most of ze trip as ze acting Chief Engineer and working on ze bridge, where I serwed as ze nawigator. Ze coding I am running at ze moment is part of ze internal workings of a dewice I am attempting to create. I am glad zat Khan let me keep my PADD, as eet had all of my data on it.”

Joachim nodded and the three Augments took their places around the room, doing their best to ignore Pavel completely, but every now and then, Joachim would look up from his star charts and run his eyes quickly over Pavel’s terminal, as if he couldn’t quite trust that all that science was happening and there was nothing evil brewing underneath.

Several hours later, Pavel jumped from his chair with a shout of joy when his simulation came back with the result that his experiment had succeeded. The atmosphere on the simulated planet had lasted for fifteen million years three times in a row. That far exceeded his predictions.

Pavel whirled around to share his joy with the others but jerked to a stop. All three of the Augments had also sprung from their seats, and each of them had leveled a particularly deadly phaser on him. Pavel’s good humor died, and he cringed away. He jerked so violently that he tripped over the edge of his chair and went toppling to the floor.

Joachim darted forward, looming over Pavel, and seized his arm to haul him from the floor. But Pavel cringed again and whimpered. Jerking his hand away from the terrified boy, Joachim took stock of the poor human.

As he fell, Pavel had reached out to grab something, anything to hold on to. He knocked his PADD from the terminal, and the glass panel went crashing to the floor, causing Pavel to land in the scattered glass and computer components. He was bleeding from his hands, and the wounds were only made worse when he had tried to crawl away from Joachim in fear.

Before Joachim could do much more than make the boy’s panic worse, Khan came storming into the room like a furious bolt of lightning. His expression was thunderous and even Joachim, who had been friends with the man for years, cringed back from his fury.

Khan seized Joachim by his shoulder and bodily tossed the young man away from Pavel before kneeling in the glass, shielding Pavel from view. The boy was not crying, not really. There were no tears, but Khan could tell that the boy was fighting hard to keep them at bay. The Augment gently took possession of Pavel’s mangled hands and inspected them.

Pavel was barely coherent enough through his panic to recognize that Khan had even entered the room. He looked up at his new Captain, who was busy picking glass out of his wounds. What was he doing? Why wasn’t he scolding Pavel for breaking equipment, or for freaking out and causing a disturbance? It made no sense.

Khan finished his examination, and scooped Pavel up off of the floor and set him on the terminal. He took Pavel’s face in large, gentle hands and turned the boy to meet his eyes. “Are you alright?” He asked, his voice strangely rough.

“I- I…” Was all Pavel could get out.

Khan shot a vicious glare at the Augments over his shoulder. They jerked, but remained in place, observing his interactions with the human.

“Pavel.” He said sternly. He hated when the boy became so upset that he began to stutter. It seemed to hit him only when he was truly terrified. “Tell me what happened.”

“M-my simulation just finished.” Pavel started, hesitantly. “Eet reached 15 million years, consistently.”

Khan smiled as warmly as he was able (which wasn’t much). “That is great news. I am sure you are ecstatic.”

“Maybe a little too ecstatic.” Pavel murmured. “I jumped up and shouted somezing. I don’t remember vhat. I turned to share my findings a- and- I zink I- I made zem mad. Zere vere weapons, and I panicked. I’m Sorry!” Pavel finished.

“It is not your fault. This is entirely my fault. I did not expect you to go exploring at such a strange hour. I will inform all of my crew that they are to keep weapons holstered at all times. That is, however, the best I can do. I will not take the weapons from my crew. They have earned the freedom to carry whatever weapons they wish. Where is your phaser?” Khan soothed.

“In my bag.” Pavel pointed at the terminal several feet away.

“Get a holster and carry it on you. Do not pull it unless your life is directly threatened, but having it will make you feel better even if you do not need it.” Khan ordered.

Pavel nodded and released the death grip he’d had on Khan’s shirt (or whatever that skimpy thing was), for once thankful of the black material. It would hide the blood stains.

Khan ran a hand through Pavels blond curls before pulling him off of the terminal.

“I will find you a replacement PADD tomorrow. All of your data was on the computer, correct?” Khan asked.

Pavel nodded as Khan herded him out of the room and down the corridor. “Good. Go see John about those hands. We can talk about your experiment later.”

After Pavel left to see to his injuries, Khan turned and pinned the three Augments in the room with his most malevolent glare.

“What part of ‘do not harm the human’ did you not understand?” He hissed, seething.

The three cringed, but Joachim said, “It was not our intention to harm him. We were on edge because of the room, and the guy started spouting science. Then he goes to shouting. It was a knee jerk reaction, boss. We didn’t mean to hurt him.”

Khan’s eyes narrowed. “Get back to work. From now on, if Pavel is using this room when you enter it, you will conduct your search elsewhere. The next Augment that draws blood on that boy will find recompense taken from his hide. Have I made myself clear?”

“Yes, Captain.” They chorused.

Nodding Khan turned and stalked from the room. He had to violently repress the urge to follow Pavel to the med station to hover as the boy was examined. There was too much work to do.

 

 

Pavel stepped through the doors of the sick bay and glanced around, searching for John. Hearing the door, the blonde Augment stepped from behind a partition and smiled. “I didn’t expect to see you back so soon. Does your head still hurt?”

Pavel smiled in return and silently presented his bleeding hands, which he had unsuccessfully been trying to staunch on his now soiled red shirt. (So much for that.)

John jerked violently, his eyes wide, before rushing Pavel over to an exam table. “How did this happen?” He demanded, eyes suddenly filled with a viciousness that belied his cuddly exterior. “If one of the crew did this to you, you will tell me immediately, and I will beat his stupid head in with a tricorder!”

Pavel didn’t understand why the man was so upset on his behalf, but it made him feel strangely warm inside. “Zat is not necessary. Khan has already spoken wiz zem. I hope zey didn’t get in trouble, zough. Eet was my fault.”

John gave Pavel a skeptical look, but said nothing as he began healing the cuts on Pavel’s hands. Pavel was quiet for a while before asking, “Am I allowed in Engineering?”

John looked up and regarded him suspiciously for a moment. “Why?”

“I hawe an experiment zat has just passed ze simulation stage, and I vas vondering if I could use ze equipment in ze engineering lab to begin construction of a prototype.” Pavel explained.

John went rigid. “What kind of experiment?” The man’s hand tightened on Pavel’s arm almost to the point of pain.

Confused, Pavel said, “I’m designing a terraforming module.”

John blinked. “A what?”

“Eet is going to be a dewise zat, upon deployment, circles a planet and releases a compressed form of an engineered ozonus chemical. After a projected period of approximately a week, ze chemical will explode, much like a split atom, but ze result will be a wast amount of simple molecules. Zese molecules will be all of ze components zat make up a stable atmosphere on an M class planet.” Pavel explained. “In essence, eet is an atmosphere in a can.”

John looked at him for a moment, dumbstruck. “You created this?”

Pavel blushed and looked at his feet, dangling of the high table. “Not yet. I need to build and test eet first.”

Pavel looked up and met John’s eyes, and jerked. There was something there, hidden in the depths of his dark blue eyes, that he had only ever seen in Khan’s eyes. It came with the strangely ridiculous realization that this man was an Augment.

Yes of course he knew that already, but until now, John had been absolutely normal, and Avery (the only other Augment he had really interacted with) had been kind of dim. Pavel hadn’t really had time to consider the vast coiling intelligence that was hidden behind that short stature and curving laugh lines.

This man was every bit as strong, calculating, ruthless, and deadly as Khan was. And that frightened Pavel a little. He didn’t fear for his life so much as he felt a jolt at his own stupidity. He had been far too lax around these people. He could not allow himself to forget what they were.

John seemed to realize where Pavel’s thoughts had gone. “You are right.” He murmured.

Pavel looked up, frowning.

“We aren’t human. We are so unlike any human being that the differences are insurmountable.” John said. “It is good for you to remember what we are. We will not react like a human would in a normal situation. Our minds run on different pathways, and we have been conditioned to analyze the world through a different lens.”

Pavel said nothing, choosing to examine the bloodstains on his ruined shirt.

John sighed. “You are a lot like us, you know.”

Pavel looked up and met his eyes, forgetting to be uneasy in his surprise. “How?”

“You look at the world in a unique way, looking at a situation and seeing it from an angle that a normal human wouldn’t even contemplate. It makes you stand out from other humans in a way that will make the narrow minded uneasy.” John explained.

Pavel looked away, not sure how he felt about such a double edged complement.

“Be glad of the time in which you live, Pavel.” John murmured, almost too low to be heard. “Had you been born in my time, they would have taken you for Augmentation in an instant. I would hate for anyone to beat such a brilliant young mind into the mold that we were forced into.”

John turned away, signaling the end of the conversation, and Pavel returned to his quarters for the rest of the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well?


	7. Sect

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pavel is kind of a BAMF. surprised?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh look! Another chapter!

Pavel woke up the next morning to tingling fingers and a large shadow looming over his bed. For half a second, Pavel thought it was Khan. But the figure moved, thick shoulders rippling, as it reached for Pavel, and the boy went on high alert.

Before the figure had time to so much as lean forward, Pavel struck. He rammed his elbow up into the man’s looming form, landing a solid blow to the figure's collar bone. Pavel rolled with the motion and was rewarded by the crunch of bone and grunt of agony that rang out behind him as he flipped himself over his opponent to crouch on the metal plating of his bedroom floor.

The intruder viciously cursed before jerking the broken bones of his clavicle back in place with a wet grinding that set Pavel's teeth on edge.

Pavel braced himself for another round, but the figure kept his distance. The man heaved a put upon sigh and ground out, "Computer, lights on."

Blinding light flooded the room, and Pavel readied himself for the man to take advantage of his lack of sight. He did not.

"You little bastard. I wish you had slept through the whole damn thing. Now I owe Lione an extra rotation in engineering." The man looked down at Pavel in consternation.

"I don't appreciate being woken in my room by a person I do not know. Eet is not only rude, but eet is dangerous as vell." Pavel retorted.

"I see that. I don't know what that crazy man was talking about. You can defend yourself just fine." The man replied.

"My awility to defend myself ees none of your concern." Pavel spat at the stranger.

"You’re right. But everything that happens on this ship is the boss's business, and he seemed to think that you needed a bit of self-defense training." The man grunted.

Pavel cursed, "I have one minor disagreement vis a glass terminal and ze man szinks I'm made of gossamer." Pavel's head shot up in realization. "He didn't take zis out on zose Augments did he? Eet vas my fault, and zey shouldn't be reprimanded."

The man's eyes narrowed. "Shouldn't be punished for what?"

"I startled some crew members in ze science lab. Zey had a bad reaction to a loud sound zat I made and I fell into some glass. Eet was entirely my fault, and I didn't agress upon zem in any vay."

The man relaxed slightly. "Maybe that is your problem. Your instinct should have been to neutralize the threat. Instead of trying to remove any factors that posed a danger to you, you took the submissive role, and that is why you got hurt."

Pavel looked up at the man. "I knew zey would not harm me, and I did not want to start a conflict ower noszing."

"And that was your mistake." The man growled, "The Augments on this ship have been conditioned to identify any potential threat and put it down before it ever becomes an issue. The only reason you are still alive is because our captain has placed you under his direct protection. In any other instance, you would be a cooling corpse. Augments don’t have a protective instinct. The less of a threat you seem to be, the easier you are to kill. You can’t put up a weak front and expect to be dismissed."

“If Augments have no protective instinct, zen why do you so easily accept zat Khan wishes to protect me?” Pavel asked, unsure of what he was really searching for.

“An augment always has a self-serving motive. If our captain wants you unharmed, it means he wants something from you that he can’t easily get somewhere else. There is something you have that he wants. I don’t know what that is, and what will happen once he has it is anyone’s guess.” The man murmured.

"So he sent you here to show me how how to..." Pavel trailed off leadingly.

"I'm going to condition you to react to danger the way an Augment would."

Pavel froze at the man's words, remembering John’s grim tone as he mentioned the ‘conditioning’ the Augments endured. "Condition how?"

The man looked him in the eye grimly. "You will find out."

The augment stalked to the door before turning back. "I suggest you take the captain's advice and carry a weapon with you at all times."

Saying nothing else, the man left through the swishing door.

Pavel sighed, resigning himself to another hard day, before moving to the Replicator. The boy contemplated for a moment, thinking over the previous day's defiance in the form of his red clothing and how it hadn't held up to even a minor a conflict.

Perhaps there was more to the augments' varying shades of black clothing than just shirking any ties to their military backgrounds.

Resigning himself to blending in with the crew, Pavel programmed the Replicator to make him a series of (reluctantly skimpy) black garments, but after seeing how little skin the augment wardrobe truly covered, fashioned himself a high collared coat to hang open over his skimpy attire.

The Augments ran several degrees hotter than the average human. Because of this, the ship tended to be quite a bit cooler than Pavel was comfortable with. It was just another thing that alienated him from the rest of the crew, but he wouldn’t let it bother him. Selecting several random garments from the massive pile that the Replicator had provided, Pavel moved to his bathroom to shower and prepare for what would undoubtedly be a hard day.

The clothing Pavel had to nearly force onto his body was definitely skimpy. After lucking into an actual full length pair of pants, Pavel was hopeful, but after having to nearly paint the leather onto his skin, the boy had resigned himself to feeling like a harlot for the rest of his stay on the ship.

The leather pants hugged his skin all the way down to his narrow ankles. The fly of the pants coming to rest just barely north of his trail of blond curls, seeming to invite one to pull them lower.

His top was barely more than a glorified nipple concealer. The vest stopped about an inch short of his navel, leaving several pale inches of Pavel’s flat stomach revealed. The deep V of the collar, held together by a single square button, plunged down his chest, just barely covering his pink nipples from view. The back of the garment was no better, the garment held to his skin by only three inch-long strips of cloth that spanned over his shoulder blades, mid- back, and the narrowest point of his small waist.

He was glad for the coat, now. Even had he not cared about being nearly naked, the boy would surely have frozen to death from lack of any heat-retaining cloth. The boy pulled a hip holster onto his pants on either side, wisely choosing not to ignore the augment’s warning from earlier.

After fitting a phaser in each side, set to maximum stun, Pavel pulled on the coat and flipped up the high collar, relishing in the warmth. (Pavel is Russian and obviously used to the cold, so when I say that it’s cold on the ship, I mean that the augments keep it at around 53 degrees Fahrenheit.)

The only thing in the boy’s wardrobe that looked like it would be any help in a fight were the boots. Pavel reveled in the added warmth as he laced up the knee high leather combat boots that fit perfectly over his skin tight pants. The thick soles and heavy weight of the boots made him feel confident that anyone he kicked would know he meant business.

When Pavel was fully dressed, he turned to the mirror and froze. The man staring back at him was not who he expected to see. The dark black of his clothing stood out against his milky white skin. The high collar of his coat framed his face, and his hair had grown longer, falling into his eyes. Pavel had to violently suppress the urge to cut his hair back to a regulation length. The action would do little to help him here, and it wasn’t like anyone on this ship cared what his hair looked like. The man staring back a Pavel was so unlike what he expected that is seemed to serve as a physical reminder that he could never go back to who he was. He would never again be a young Star Fleet officer at the start of his career. That man was dead. Pavel had become someone wholly new, and terrifyingly enough, he was starting to feel okay with that.

Pavel spent a good deal of time that day working on his door. The stupid thing was a gross breach in his personal security and he had a general distaste for all automatic doors. After about an hour, Pavel had deactivated all automatic functions and installed a voice recognition algorithm that would only allow people in that he determined were welcome.

Pavel, of course, had alpha clearance and could open the door, that now required one to reach out and physically slide open (Silently because he hates the swoosh) whenever he wanted without having to provide any sort of code.

There was one other person who was allowed to access the door. But Khan would have to provide the door with his name to gain entry. All others would be asked to identify themselves and the program would seek Pavel’s approval before allowing them inside.

This project was time consuming, but Pavel came out of it with a feeling of accomplishment and safety that he hadn’t had for days. It wasn’t until Pavel was rummaging in his bag for his PADD that Pavel realized he would have to leave his room that day. Khan had promised him a new handheld terminal and he wanted to ask for access to engineering, but that would require finding the man who was, no doubt, busy plotting his crew’s next move.

Pavel stalked the room in anger when the computer refused to give him Khan’s location on the ship. How was he expected to find the infuriating man on this ridiculously large ship when the computer refused to give him even a general location? Pavel stalked down the corridors toward the bridge unmolested, even sharing the turbo lift with a couple of Augments that didn’t even look at him twice.

Pavel strode onto the bridge, keeping a tight grip on his growing irritation. Khan was standing in the middle of a group of augments that were examining the differences between two entirely uninhabited solar systems.

“Khan.” The entire bridge froze when their Captain’s name rang out.

Khan looked up and scanned the room, searching for the source of the voice. It took several moments for his eyes to settle on Pavel, and several seconds longer for them to light up in recognition. He then ran very critical eyes up and down Pavel’s lean frame. His eyes coming back to rest on the boy’s face.

Pavel shot a look around him at the other Augments, who seemed to be slowly identifying him one by one. Each watching their interactions like a hawk.

Pavel stepped closer and said, “I’m here to request access to engineering. My project (augments didn’t seem to like the word experiment) has reached ze testing phase and I require access to ze materials in engineering to produce a working prototype.”

Khan’s eyes softened infinitesimally. “You have access to every area of the ship. You movements will only be restricted if you violate my trust.” Khan turned and pulled a gleaming hand terminal from under the science station and handed it to Pavel. “As promised.”

Pavel accepted it with a nod, suddenly unsure of how to end the conversation.

“I would like you to keep me updated on your progress.” Khan paused, “And I’m glad to see you took my advice.” He said, indicating the phasers well concealed under Pavel’s coat.

Pavel nodded. “Eet vas recommended to me again zis morning.” Pavel said, raising a brow.

Khan smiled darkly. “I heard that Keenan took a trip to see John earlier. Seems he underestimated his opponent.”

“Many people underestimate me. He vill not be entering my quarters uninwited again.” Pavel said icily, and turned to leave. “Perhaps he will spread ze knowledge.” He tossed over his shoulder.

Khan’s laugh was cut off by the turbo lift doors closing behind Pavel as he left.

Pavel went straight to the engineering deck and claimed an unmanned terminal in a dark corner of the cavernous space. His new PADD was sleek, slightly bigger, and several times more expensive than his previous device. He was relieved to see that all of his data had transferred to the new device without error.

Pavel was halfway through the schematic design of his terraforming projectile when he felt a prickle at the nape of his neck. Without stopping to question the sensation, Pavel whipped around and landed a blow to the forearm of his would-be attacker.

Avery. Pavel’s eyes narrowed and he smashed his foot to the man’s instep as he rose from his chair. The Augment howled in pain, stumbling out of range to regroup. It took only a moment before the man was lunging. Pavel darted to the side, landing a glancing blow on the man’s ribs.

Avery howled in pain when one of the boned bucked from the blow. Hissing in fury, he caught Pavel by the throat and flung him to the ground, moving to land on top of him, but Pavel rolled with the movement and landed in a crouch, sending a heavily booted foot out to connect with Avery’s face. His nose crunched, and the Augment fell to the ground, unconscious.

Unsure what to do now that he had won, Pavel stood awkwardly over Avery’s unmoving form. After a moment, he moved to the terminal and contacted John to come get the man. Pavel was lost in his research when a young Augment he had never seen came to collect Avery from the floor, so he lost the chance to ask why he was being attacked.

He spent numerous hours on his design before finally finding a configuration that he deemed acceptable. It would take nearly a week to produce a working prototype, but Pavel welcomed the challenge.

It was quite a few hours later, and Pavel was walking to his quarters, when he was attacked again. This time, by a petite blond young woman who moved like lightning and struck harder.

Pavel saw it coming, but he was to slow by far to do anything but protect his vital organs. The woman landed a blow across his face that threw him to the ground. He was dizzy an nauseous but he ignored that and forced his body into motion, hooking his boot around her ankle and sending her to the floor. He was bigger than her, but just barely. He had just managed to pin her to the floor when he felt a phaser press into the tender skin behind his left ear.

She wasn't alone. And he was an idiot. Every time had been accosted that day it was by one person, and he was an idiot to believe that they wouldn't change their strategy accordingly.

That was fine. He had yet to use his weapons, so no one knew he was armed. That would work in his favor. Pavel quickly moved the woman's hands into one of his, reaching with his right (weaker) hand to pull his phaser. Pavel stunned the woman under him simultaneously kicking up and landing a solid blow I his opponents shoulder.

The man behind him cried out and dropped the phaser, cradling his shoulder as he stumbled away.

Pavel fired another shot into the woman for security before tackling the man to the ground. He caught another blow to the face before he stunned the man with his blaster, leaving him unconscious. Pavel stood and looked down at the two Augments, berating himself. That had been way to close, and because he had let his guard down, they now knew he was armed. The fights were about to get a whole lot harder.

Pavel knew they were testing him, but he had no idea how far they were willing to take this. He wouldn't be holding back anymore, and if someone got maimed, well they started this, didn't they?

 

 

The next morning, Pavel was about to leave his quarters (clad in equally skimpy garments and his flaring long coat) when he heard what sounded like cowering young Augment facing a very pissed of Khan right outside his door.

"I'm sorry, sir! I've been trying to open this door for almost an hour and it won't budge. No matter what codes I implement, it denies me access." The voice was saying.

Pavel had muted the door last night out of irritation at being accosted so many times that day. He had figured if something important happened that Khan would be able to get in. It seems not.

Just then, Khan stepped within sensor range of the door, and it prompted him to give it his name. Pavel heard a growled 'Khan' before the lock on the door clunked and the voice chirped "Access Granted".

The door slammed open and Khan nearly trampled Pavel who was in the doorway. Checking himself at the last moment, Khan glared down at Pavel and growled, "What that fuck do you think you are doing?"

"I'm not sure vat you mean. I vas just about to head to engineering to work on my project." Pavel said, feigning nonchalance.

"I needed you on the bridge an hour ago. What did you do to this door?" Khan demanded.

"I don't like automatic doors. So I made sure eet vasn't automatic. I muted the buzzer last night szinking zat you vould come get me if someszing happened. I guess I vas wrong." Pavel said, petulantly.

"I sent one of my crew after you. He couldn't get in." Khan growled.

"Good, zat means eet is working." Pavel retorted, shooting a glance over Khan's shoulder at the young Augment, who was gaping at the human that dared talk to Khan like an equal.

Khan paused. "Why did the door just let me in? Did you disable it?"

Pavel gave him a strange look. "No I gave you access. The door will always open for you."

Khan gave Pavel a searching look. He didn't understand why a boy who sought to lock himself away from the whole ship would give Khan free run off his quarters. It made no sense.

"Vhy can't I ask ze ship your location?" Pavel said, breaking his line of thought.

"Why would you need to?" Khan asked suspiciously.

"So I know where you are if I'm looking for you. Eet vas only luck zat I found you so easily yesterday. If zere is an emergency and I need to find you, knowing your general location will greatly help. Ze worst szing I could do vis ze information would be to avoid you, and seeing as I have given you unrestricted access to my quarters, eet seems unlikely zat zat is my goal." Pavel snapped, irritated.

The boy shouldered past Khan and the gaping augment in the hall, stalking angrily toward engineering, but somehow his feet carry him to sick bay instead.

John looked up in surprise and then nearly vaulted across the large room. Pulling Pavel's face into his hands, John hissed, "I'm going to murder them. Which one of those odors has a death wish?"

Pavel was surprised by his vehemence. It was just a bruise. There was no reason for the Augment to be reacting this way.

"Eet is just a bruise. Zat isn't even vhy I'm here." Pavel said, perplexed.

John drew back slightly and looked him over. "I don't give a shit why you came. Someone on this ship put their hands on you and I'm going to find them and she I'm through they will be nothing but a stain on the floor." John growled.

"It's just a test! Eet vill be ower in a few days. I can handle myself." Pavel grumbled, exasperated.

John froze and raked him with a glare. "And whose idea was this 'test'?"

"Khan's?" Pavel replied uncertainly.

John stiffened. "That bloody idiot." He growled before leaving Pavel alone and confused in the medical bay, unsure of how he wound up there in the first place.

 

 

After another intense day of designing his terraforming module, intermittently interrupted by an attack from, one and sometimes several, augment after the other, Pavel dragged himself back to his quarters and entered, stripping off his coat and heading for the shower. He seemed to be covered in someone's blood, but he couldn't remember who had bled on him quite this much.

"Are you injured?" Came from the darkness across the room.

Pavel whirled, pulling a phaser and tensing for another attack but he jerked the gun down when he realized he had pressed his weapon to Khan's throat.

"Do you vant me to shoot you?" Pavel asked.

"Answer my question." Khan roared.

Pavel jumped eyes widening.

"I- I'm fine. Zis ees somevone else's blood. Zough I'm not sure vy you care, as you are ze one who sent zem after me. Shouldn't you be checking on your crew members?" Pavel whispered.

Khan stepped closer, into Pavel's space. "My crew will heal. You may not, if injured to such an extent as they seem to be. Tell me, Pavel, how does one do young and so promising become simultaneously the most deadly human I have met to date and the most weak willed human to have ever come into contact with the augments and live?"

Pavel flinched and took a step back. "Vhy do you care? I szought zat you only cared zat I vasn't veak. Why do you care about my childhood?"

Khan's eyes narrowed. "So it was one of your parents then, which one?"

"Zat is none of your business!" Pavel yelled, tears forming in his eyes. "You only care zat I von't be a burden! I've more zan proved zat I can take care of myself, and considering ze number of bones I have broken in ze last few days, you should be satisfied zat I vill do anyszing to survive. Vat more do you vant from me?"

Pavel wasn't expecting khan to touch him, so when khan grabbed him by his arms and bodily threw Pavel against the wall, the boy could do nothing but gape at him, noting that khan was strangely careful not to hurt him.

"You are not just a burden!" Khan roared in his face. "I do not trust easily, but you have proven yourself to me and the crew many times over. I want to know how you think because you are a member of my crew and the only people I care about in this world are on this ship. As long as the seventy three of you are safe, the universe can burn."

Pavel gaped at him.

"You may not have earned the friendship and trust of my crew, but you have earned mine. You may think I didn't notice that you easily had the power to ruin our plans for freedom. You did everything to help us short of holding the door open as we escaped, and all of my crew knows it." Khan's voice softened. "I want to know who has hurt you because every cell in my body is screaming at me to destroy the things that have harmed you. I would never hold your demons against you."

"But Keenan said zat you vere incapable of caring." Pavel whispered, his fast breathing mixing with Khan's where their faces were almost pressed together.

"Keenan needs to mind his sect." Khan hissed.

Pavel blunted up at him, confused. "Sect?"

Khan heaved a sigh and moved away from Pavel. "When we were selected for Augmentation, we were modified individually. They didn't want to create the perfect human. They wanted the perfect tool. We were selected to become these tools because we excelled in an area that they found lucrative. Of course we were all destined to be soldiers, so we are all deadly, but we were picked because of our individual skill sets."

Khan sank down onto the edge of Pavel's bed, his back straight and muscles tense. "John's skill set was his medical genius and his empathy. Keenan's was his culinary skills and his sheer strength. Avery, despite what you might think, is a computer mastermind, though he severely lacks common sense. Each of us is a master at our own art."

"What is your skill set?" Pavel whispered, afraid to overstep his bounds.

"Everything." Khan answered, bitterly.

"I don't understand." Pavel said.

"I was designed to be the perfect leader. A man who could outdo all of the perfect soldiers they had created, but the last thing I wanted was to lead. I was chosen for my mind. I have the ability to learn and excel at anything and everything. They didn't do anything to my mind. I'm the same as I was the day I was recruited. My body, however, was genetically altered. I'm even less human than the rest of my crew, and they know it." Khan sighed. "A never wanted to lead, but I wanted even less for my people to die. So I look on the roll they gave me. Not for our creators, but because without leadership, we would die."

Pavel was unsure how to respond. He wanted to tell Khan about his childhood and the horrors he had experienced, especially after khan had opened up to him, but Pavel couldn't force the words past his trembling lips.

Khan looked up, seeing the conflict in Pavel's eyes, and said, "I will not force you to tell me about your past, but you should know that if anyone in world will understand the things you have experienced, it is this crew."

Khan left after that. Leaving Pavel on his bed fighting tears and the nearly overwhelming urge to call him back.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm never sure how my fight scenes went until I let the chapter sit for a while and then go back an reread it, but I was impatient, so here. Also this might have a few weird things in the text because I wrote the bulk of this on my phone XD. I will fix them at some point I promise.


	8. Fatigue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pavel is so cute when he's sleepy :3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have another chapter. I was on a roll and figured I would spoil you guys.

Pavel threw himself into his work. He knew that he now had all the time in the world to be confused over where he stood with Khan. It seemed that their relationship (if you could call it that) was getting more confusing by the day. He would, at some point, have to work up the nerve to have a serious talk with Khan about his purpose aboard the Vengeance and the Augments purpose in general. He knew that he had little say in what Khan did with his newfound freedom, but he would be damned if he would participate in any illegal activities.

Pavel wasn’t as naïve as many people seemed to think. He knew that the Augments had very liberal sets of morals, and that the good of their collective outweighed all else. But Pavel wasn’t thinking about these things. No, he had thrown himself deeply into the construction of his terraforming module. Having no idea how long he had been at it, quite a while considering he was putting the finishing touches on a working prototype, he looked up sharply at the sound of footsteps approaching him from behind.

He didn’t expect to see the young woman from earlier, the one who struck lick lightning. Pavel still had a livid bruise along the right side of his face from the blow she had landed. Now, she seemed more sheepish than anything.

“Can I ask you a favour?” She murmured, not meeting his eyes.

“Zat depends. Does eet inwolwe doing my bodily harm?” Pavel asked.

The girl looked up, startled, then blushed. “Yeah, actually. It might.”

Pavel quirked a brow. “You hawe my attention.”

“I need a sparring partner.” She said, shortly.

“Aren’t zere at least sewenty-two ozer people on zis ship who would be more on your lewel? I may fight dirty, but by stamina ees aweful. I couldn’t keep up wiz any of you in a drawn out fight.” Pavel said, confused.

“Good.” She beamed, “That means you will get as much out of it as I do.”

“Why me?” Pavel asked.

She averted her gaze again. After a moment, she said, “Despite how well we have adapted to this century, there are some things that a brilliant mind can’t overcome.”

The woman moved to his desk and leaned her slight weight against the edge, staring up into the warp coils across the room. After a moment she continued. “No matter how advanced we are as a species, Augments were created by humans. Archaic humans, by your standards. When we were human, not so long ago, men were keeping slaves. Women couldn’t own property. The planet was at war with itself and its environment. These were facts of life to us, and our recent history and prejudice colored how we saw the world.

There are very few female Augments as a result. Sixteen in total. And that is hard for us as a new species. We have barely enough to vary our genetics in order to propagate our species, though as long lived as we are supposed to be, a low birth rate won’t matter at first. We’re lucky to be able to procreate at all.

But my point is, I grew up in a time when men treated women like something precious. As an ideal, that doesn’t seem so bad. But in practice, it’s really nothing more than a more minor form of prejudice. They don’t mean it that way, but that’s how it comes across sometimes.

Men toggle open door switches for me. If I’m lifting a heavy container, which is almost always, one of them will ‘help’ me with it. I understand the sentiment, but my arms work perfectly fine. If I need help, I will ask for it. What this all boils down to, is that none of the male Augments will agree to spar with me because they are afraid to hurt me. ‘You never hit a lady’ and all that. And the other female Augments are from less tactile sects, so they can’t really keep up. I figured, you being in the military with women, and having first-hand experience with how I fight, would be willing to spar with me every now and then.”

“Star Fleet isn’t military.” Pavel defended on reflex, but sighed. “Fine. Eet will probably only make my life harder, but I vill spar vis you. I need to keep on top of my game anyvay.”

The girl jumped up and hugged him, excited. “Oh, thankyouthankyouthankyou! You won’t regret it; I promise!” She bounded out of engineering like a five year-old on a sugar high, before poking her head back in. “My name is Lione, by the way!” She said, and was gone.

Pavel shook his head and chuckled under his breath, before turning back to his work and diving back into the complex schematics of his project.

 

 

Lione dragged him away from his bench several hours later and into a large room that had been converted from a weapons storage bay into a rec room. There were several archaic looking exercise machines that had obviously been pieced together from the replicator. Piles of round metal disks in varying sizes, and racks that contained strange almost bone shaped objects, each marked with a weight and arranged by size.

There were three large, soft mats taking up the bulk of the floor, each with a large circle painted crudely on its surface.

“The rules are simple, the round is over if you manage to pin me for three seconds, or if you throw me from the circle. If your opponent leaves the circle you gain a point. First to five points wins.” She had changed into some tight, skin hugging outfit that was impossibly skimpier than what she usually wears.

There were several Augments in the room already, some working at the crude equipment, some sparring on the other mats. They were mostly ignored until Pavel stripped of his cos and removed his boots, his bare feet sinking into the thick mat.

It was obvious when the Augments realized who Pavel was. Even more so when it registered what he was about to do. As Pavel sank into a basic stance, taught by the academy, some of the Augments chuckled. He ignored the bets being made.

Lione came at him like a whirlwind of flashing eyes and heavy blows. She kicked him to the ground and had a dainty bare foot pressed to his throat in seconds. Pavel wasn't surprised. He had fought with her before and knew she kicked like a mule.

Grabbing her ankle, Pavel wrenched her foot to the side, forcing her to fall with the motion or risk a broken bone. She hit the mat and rolled, back on her feet in seconds. But that was Plenty of time for Pavel to kick a foot out and catch her in the face.

Surprised, she froze for a moment, allowing Pavel to get a hand around her wrist. He wrenched her arm and forced her face into the mat. One member of the growing crowd took I upon himself to count to three.

Lione got up, cursing good-naturedly and resumed the starting position. This time, Pavel took a blow to the temple, and was down for three counts before he even registered the blow.

Lione helped him up a worried glint in her eyes. "You ok?"

"Fine." Pavel grunted, resuming his position.

Lione paused for a moment before shrugging and finding her place on the mat.

The next round took longer, each of them fighting for a dominant position as they rolled on the mats, the crowd cheering and jeering around them.

Pavel barely managed to hold Lione in place for three counts. The woman slipping his hold just after the count of three.

After five more rounds, a gash to the forearm and several bruises between them, Pavel and Lione were tied at four points each. Lione was sweating, but her breathing was even and her hands were sweaty.

Pavel's fingers trembled slightly, and his eyes were glazed with fatigue. He wavered in place like a stiff wind would bowl him over, but here was a determined light in his eyes.

Lione lunged, aiming for his solar plexus, but Pavel went limp, falling to the mat and seizing her midair. He rolled on top of her and pinned her hands.

The count was at two when Lione rammed her forehead into Pavel's already bruised temple, and the room went dark.

***

Pavel woke on the floor of the rec room to a ring of worried faces. Lione hovered by his head and released a relieved breath when his eyes flicked open.

Pavel rolled to his feet, hating the sensation of so many people hovering over his prone form, but immediately regretted it when his world tilted on its axis. A burly Augment, with artificial blue hair and several ink designs etched into his skin, caught Pavel as he lurched to the side.

"Woah, there kid. Not so fast. We need to check you for concussion. You were out for a few minutes, and Lione has a thang for head shots." The man said in a deep southern American accent.

"I don't hawe a concussion. I hawe had enough of zem to know. I take zis to mean zat I lost ze match." Pavel said.

"Yeah. But don't take it too hard, kid. Not many people experience hurricane Lione and fare so well." The man said, and cursed when Lione smacked him upside the head. "The name is Titus, but everyone calls me Ford. Well, I say everyone. Khan calls me Titus. It's a reference to a car from our time. You might not get it."

"Ford eet is zen. My name is Pawel. Nice to meet you." Pavel smiles up at him.

"Piwel?" The man brawls.

"Pavel, you idiot." Lione says fondly, running her hand up his arm.

Pavel darts his eyes between them for a moment before noting the intimate stance they stood in. He smiled, happy to find this first glimpse of evidence that the Augments might heal from their ordeal after all.

Pavel smiles at them and says, "Vell now zat I hawe liwed szrough ze ordeal of my first spar whiz Lione, I szink I hawe hearned a good night sleep."

Lione squeals and nudges Ford. "Isn't he the cutest thing!! How old are you, Pavel?"

"Sewenteen."

She blinked at him. "Holy shit, really?"

"Yes, vhy?" Pavel asked, confused.

""How the hell were you on Star Fleet's flagship? You aren't even legal, and I know that wasn't your first voyage." She gaped.

"I passed all of ze early admittance exams and entered ze academy at fourteen. I finished early and was giwen a post on ze enterprise because seester Scott somehow got a hold of my test scores." Pavel explained. "Eet was all luck, really."

"Bullshit." Lione hissed, and Pavel jumped, hazy eyes widening in surprise. "I went to college, and I know how much work it took to finish early back then. I can only imagine how hard that was for you. If you ended up on the Enterprise because one of its chief staff recommended it, then you worked your ass of to earn that recognition, and I don't want to hear any bullshit about being handed your opportunities."

"Sorry." Pavel murmured.

Lione smiled and placed a hand on his arm. "I like you, kid. Even if you are jail bait."

Pavel's brow furrowed in confusion. "Jail bait?"

Ford laughed. "It's slang for someone who isn't a legal adult being sexually attractive to adults."

"But I am a legal adult. I vas considered an adult by law ze moment I graduated from ze academy." Pavel said.

"They finally fixed that?" Ford asked incredulous.

"Fixed vat?"

"In out time," Lione explained, "minors ere allowed to enlist in the military and fight as adults, but they were still bound by the laws of minors, even though they were tried as adults in our court. They weren't allowed to drink alcohol or vote in our elections. They couldn't do a lot of things adults were allowed, even though they could die for our governments causes."

"Eet isn't like zat now. Once one is educated and financially independent, zey are considered an adult, no matter zere age." Pavel said.

The conversation slowly died after that, the two Augments seeming lost in thought. Pavel left soon after, making his way groggily down the dark frigid corridors to his room. He was nearly asleep before the door to his too swooshed open to admit him.

His last thought before falling asleep, after stripping down to his skimpy shorts and falling into bed, was that he thought he had fixed that damn door. Oh well. He would look at it in the morning.

 

 

Khan needed to have a talk with that boy. It was inevitable, but he was dreading it. He knew the boy, as sharp as he was, would ask some hard questions that Khan wasn't sure even he knew the answers to, such as why he had taken the boy in the first place.

He was in a good mood tonight, though. Stories had been circulating the ship all week about the boy's various actions aboard the ship. His test for the boy had worked out exactly as he planned, both by strengthening his awareness in his surroundings, and giving him a jump start in interacting with the crew.

Khan had heard many tales over the last you about Pavel's sparring session with Lione in the rec room several hours before. Though he needed to have a serious talk with the woman about how fragile Pavel was, despite neither of them wanting to truly admit that fact, he was glad that but Pavel and Lione had found someone to identify with. Khan knew the boy was feeling isolated, and hoped that his interactions with the crew would grow, and he would eventually develop friendships. One of Khan's biggest fears was making Pavel experience the isolation he had felt when separated from his crew.

He had promised Pavel that he would release the boy when the time came, if he still wanted to go, and Khan didn't understand the sick feeling in the pit of his stomach at the thought of leaving Pavel on some strange planet alone. But he would not keep the boy here against his will, he couldn't do that so someone after what he had endured. It gave him hope, however, to see that Pavel had adopted their style of dress and was spending time with his crew.

When he got to his door, Khan looked over to the dark shape of the door to Pavel's quarters. Shaking his head, Khan decided to leave their conversation until tomorrow. From the stories he had heard, the boy was probably fatigued from his earlier activities.

Khan enters his quarters and headed to the bathroom, forgoing the lights and picking his way across the dark room, relaxing after spending all day working with the Alpha team.

After finishing his shower, a luxury he still feels guilty utilizing, even after weeks aboard the Vengeance, Khan left his bathroom in a soft, shiny black pair of sleep pants.

He was nearly to the edge of his mattress when he registered breathing in the room. Khan froze, senses sharpening as he zeroed in on the source of the sound.

There was someone in his bed. He ran through all of the Augments in his crew that would be both brazen and stupid enough to attempt to seduce him before he registered that the figure was asleep.

"Computer, lights at dimmest setting." He murmured, squinting in irritation.

His eyes flared wide, and he sucked I a quick breath when he recognized the figure curled, half naked, in his black sheets.

Pavel's mouth was open, and his bare torso peaked out from beneath the blankets, goose flesh rippling across his skin. Khan had noticed Pavel's tendency to keep his room quite a but warmer than the rest of the ship.

Watching him for a few more moments, khan deliberated. He wanted to sleep, and his bed was the only place that was going to happen, but he was loathe to wake the boy who was sleeping so soundly.

There rooms were close enough that Khan knew the boy rarely slept soundly, and to see him burrowed so deep into Khan's pillow was a strange sight. As he watched, the boy scented the pillow and burrowed deeper, curling closer to the edge of the massive bed.

Khan deliberated for a moment more before chickening out. The boy would find out in the morning, anyway, and Khan was too tired for the conversation that he knew would follow.

Pavel was on Khan's side, but the Augment buried his irritation and circled the bed, slipping in the on the other side. He wasn't looking forward to the next day, but he was eager to examine Pavel's reaction to his location.

For the first time in centuries, Khan smiled as he fell asleep.

 

 

Pavel woke slowly the next morning. Stretching languorously, he burrowed deeper into the soft pillow beneath his head, breathing in the dark, rich scent on the fabric. Pavel hadn’t slept so well in months, and it was a sorely needed rest, especially after the stress he had been putting his body through. He would never admit it, but his body had been in so much pain over the last week that, had he not trained up his pain tolerance to nearly the Augment’s level, he would be in debilitating agony.

Rolling onto his side, the blanket tugged down slightly, baring a bit of his skin to the frigid air outside his warm nest of blankets. Why was it so cold in here? He was sure he had reprogrammed the air ducts in his room to never let the temperature fall below 68 degrees. Groaning at the thought of getting out of bed, Pavel slipped from the sheets and headed for the bathroom. The automatic lights flooded the room as the door swished open, and he reached for his toothbrush, wiping the sleep from his eyes with his other hand.

His toothbrush was missing. Brow furrowed, Pavel looked at the bathroom counter. It was devoid of all personal items that he boy had accumulated over the last few weeks. Turning, Pavel took in the rest of the small room.

This wasn’t his bathroom. Hiding his panic, Pavel stepped back out into the bedroom and took a careful look around. The lights had been left at their dimmest setting and he could barely make out the shapes of furniture in the gloom.

Double shit.

This was Khan’s quarters. How in the bloody fuck did he manage to stumble into the wrong quarters? And why did the door just let him in? It should have- oh. Pavel chuffed a laugh. Khan had given Pavel free access to his quarters, probably out of some strange reciprocation of Pavel giving him access to his modified door.

As a result, Pavel had wandered, half asleep, into the wrong quarters. But where was Khan now? Why hadn’t he shoved Pavel awake in the middle of the night demanding to know why he was asleep in the Captain’s bed? Scanning the room again, Pavel’s eyes zeroed in on the barest hint of raven curls that were peeking out from beneath the covers on the opposite side of Khan’s frighteningly large bed.

Khan had slept with him. Pavel held no hope that the Augment hadn’t noticed Pavel sprawled across his bed like he owned the place, and he was dreading facing the man after such an embarrassment. How did he manage to get himself into these situations? He debated just leaving, but that would only make the coming conversation more awkward. Pavel paused, on the verge of bolting anyway, when Khan’s deep voice rumbled from beneath the blankets, “If you were dissatisfied with your quarters, all you had to do was say so. You cannot have my bed, however. I seem to have grown attached to it.”

“I- I’m sorry.” Pavel stammered. “I didn’t mean to-” Khan cut him off.

“I’m well aware that you entered my room out of error. You have nothing to apologize for. If anything, it is my fault for not waking you last night, however you appeared to need the rest, and my bed is large enough for us both to sleep undisturbed. If my estimations are correct, you slept for nearly twelve hours, and were here quite some time before I discovered you.” Khan said, rising from the bed, his chest glowing pale in the dim light.

He ran a hand through his tousled hair as he approached, and stopped looming over Pavel in the darkness. “We need to talk.”

“A- about what?” Pavel whispered looking up into his shadowed eyes, gleaming silver in even this low light.

“I told you several weeks ago that you would be given a choice after three weeks. Stay or go. You have some time left, but it would be wise of you to begin contemplating your decision. If you choose to leave, you will never see or hear from any of us ever again.” Khan rumbled. “That said, I am pleased at the progress you seem to have made with the crew. Just the other day, John gave me a rather stern lecture on his opinion of my ‘test’. Seems he thinks you are some delicate flower that will wilt under a bit of heat. Lione seems to think otherwise. I agree.”

“Why?” Pavel blurted.

“Why not?” Khan quirked an imperious brow. “You have given no indication that your situation has caused you any mental stress. You have continued to work at your pet project, you seem to have made quite a bit of progress toward friendship, and you haven’t had any mishaps in at least a week. You are modifying your quarters to be more pleasing to you, and you have adopted our style of dress. You have expressed no desire to leave that I am aware of, and you seem to be quite comfortable among us. Am I correct?”

“I don’t know.” Pavel whispered. “But I do know zat, no matter what I choose, zere is no going back to Star Fleet for me. Not after ze discowery of so much hidden corruption. I will miss my old crew, but I vill not be going back.”

Pavel was quiet for a moment before continuing. “I’m not sure vere we are, but I know zat I don’t vant to be left on some strange planet alone. I guess zat means I vant to stay. I may hawe a bit of time left to decide, but I’m sure now. I don’t vant to go anyvere.”

Khan suppressed the pleasure that was swelling in his chest.

“Vat I don’t understand,” Pavel continued, “Is vat you vanted me for in ze first place. I can’t szink of anyszing zat you would gain from taking me, knowing zat I would newer betray Star Fleet.”

“I have thought over that extensively, myself.” Khan replied, “And I have come to the conclusion that it was you that I wanted. I had never seen so much raw potential and intelligence in a human before. You were the closest thing to an Augment I had seen in nearly three hundred years, and the thought of your planet doing anything remotely close to what they inflicted on us, to you nearly drove me insane.”

Khan took a moment to collect himself before continuing.

“You are the closest thing I have had to a friend since Joachim’s father died, and the fact that I made that friend through a plasma glass cell wall fascinates me.” Khan admitted, “I am not a man who easily connects with other people, especially those I have no reason to trust.

The day you entered my cell with a tray of food, like the last thing that ever occurred to you was that I might hurt you was the day I decided to take you with me. You don’t know how hard it was not to orchestrate the demise of that slimy little man, Sulu. The only reason I allowed him to live was the thought that you would be upset that I killed him.

I have known you less than a month, Pavel, and already you are a member of my crew. Over the course of our existence, our number has only grown smaller. This is the first time we have grown in number, and many of my crew will not know how to handle the addition of a person they do not know. They, like I, will be slow to trust, but give them time. I truly hope that you will be happy here, and that we can help you reach your full potential.” Khan placed a warm hand on Pavel’s bare shoulder, ignoring the spark of foreign emotion that flared, momentarily, to life in his chest.

Pavel was fighting back his own strong emotions, his eyes misty and his throat tight. He nodded, leaning slightly into the weight of the hand on his shoulder. He didn’t know until now how bad he had needed Khan’s approval, and the sheer amount of comfort he took from the man’s words was frightening. Pavel took a step back, and Khan’s face fell back into its usual mask of biting intelligence and authority.

“Now, I need to speak to you about your project. I think I may have found a use for it.” Khan said, slipping a shirt over his shoulders. Pavel donned his clothing as well and then followed the Captain from his quarters.

Neither of them notice the angry eyes that latched on to their retreating forms, noticing how they stood a little too close, eyes misted with sleep and clothes rumpled. Conclusions were obviously drawn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not really sure what's going on in this chapter. A bit of character development, I guess. Thoughts?


	9. Trauma

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Augments make some headway into finding a new home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this has been half written forever, and I just found the time to finish it. I haven't slept yet, and I have to be at work in three hours, so some of this might be questionable. Who knows.

Khan was describing his plans for the acquisition of a planet, when he froze mid-sentence.

His eyes narrowed, and he cocked his head in an almost reptilian manner. After a moment, Khan whirled and scanned the empty corridor behind them, seeming to search for some invisible threat that Pavel couldn’t see or sense. Seemingly finding nothing, Khan paused for a moment more before continuing down the corridor, picking up on the exact word he paused at.

Confused, it took Pavel a moment to pick back up on the conversation. “And from the information I managed to misappropriate from Star Fleet’s main archive, standard procedure when encountering an entire system of inhabitable planets is to mark the area in their star maps as NOI. Not of Import. An unmanned probe is sent to the system every fifty years to monitor its development, but that is not high on the Federation’s list of priorities, therefore is often is overlooked in favor of more pressing matters.”

“But what does zat hawe to do vis finding a habitable planet?” Pavel asked.

“That is where your terraforming module comes in. Our long-range sensors have been scouring the quadrant for a system with planets that meet these requirements. Once we find one that has a suitable climate, we will launch your device onto the planet. Once a viable atmosphere has been created, we can begin settlement of the planet.” Khan explained.

“But eet is only a prototype. Vat if eet doesn’t work?” Pavel said.

“I have confidence in your abilities.” Khan said, locking his piercing gaze with Pavel's own, somewhat uncertain, hazel eyes.

It was a nice sentiment, but Pavel wasn’t nearly as confident as Khan seemed to be. Deciding to let the matter lie for now, Pavel asked, “So vat do we do once ze atmosphere ees stable?”

“It’s going to be a rather long process, but depending on how long ago the system was scanned by the federation, we will have about fifty years to fully terraform the planet and set up a working colony. Once we have a stable, self-sustaining community, Federation law will protect us from any harm Star Fleet would seek to do us.” Khan said.

It gave Pavel a strange feeling in his chest when he realized that Khan included Pavel when he said ‘We’. The way the man described the next fifty years of hard work almost made it seem easy. He was starting to understand why Khan was such a good leader, and why the Augments would follow no one else.

“I have narrowed our choices down to two systems. The ideal planet in each is central in the system.” Khan murmured. “Either would be perfectly acceptable, but I thought I would let you take a look at them and tell me which you think would be better suited to our purposes.”

Strangely touched by the offer, Pavel swallowed thickly and nodded, following Khan to the ship’s observatory.

 

 

 

The two systems were beautiful. That was one of the strange things about planetary systems. You could never tell what kind of planet you were looking at from outer space. All of the planets in the temperate zone of a solar system that were capable of supporting life looked like they did, in fact, support life.

The first solar system that Pavel examined was in the Trisani system. It had a blue-green swirling gas cloud and its surface was nearly 90% salt water. A good thing for a small colony, but in the long run it would cause problems with a growing global population. The soil was fertile, but the plant life (which had adapted to survive with a nearly non-existent atmosphere) was hostile, but edible and would provide a relatively easy source of food. The land was flat, and even with little ozone layer to speak of, the temperature was mild.

The second solar system had just been charted by the federation less than five years prior. It was mountainous, its surface covered in only 48% water. But it was a fresh water planet. Every drop could be easily converted into drinkable water. The planet was smaller than the first, and seemed altogether unassuming. It had a minimal layer of nitrogen surrounding it, so one could see how its tiny, young sun reflected off of the faintly purple surface.

The choice was clear. “That one.” Pavel said, after having only given the planets a cursory examination.

Joachim, who had been in the room reviewing the two systems when they arrived, said, “What? Why? You’ve only been in here for, what? Ten minutes? How the hell could you make an informed decision so fast?”

Shrinking a bit under his censure, Pavel kept silent, but Khan’s hand came down heavily on the back of his neck, the warm weight reassuring. “Why, Pavel?” He prodded.

“Ze- Ze atmosphere.” Pavel said.

“What?” Joachim said, turning back to study the two planets. “Neither of them has one.”

“Not necessarily.” Pavel contradicted. Pointing to the thin wisps of greenish fog that swirled over the surface of the first planet.

“Zis gas formation is a concentration of oxygen particles in ze limited atmosphere of ze planet. Eet is much to concentrated for us to breathe, and would lead to poisoning wiszin minutes.” Pavel said.

“Yeah, so?” Joachim said. “Were going to terraform the place anyway. Wouldn’t having oxygen to start with make the process easier?”

Pavel shook his head. “See how ze green tint of ze planet is more intense in ze areas where zere are many of ze gas pockets?”

Joachim nodded. Khan said nothing, but continued to watch with a keen interest.

“Ze planet is colored zat way because of a rare photo reaction zat ze sun has on ze chemical makeup of zat specific oxygen isotope.” Pavel explained.

“I know that. But what does that have to do with terraforming the planet?” Joachim asked.

“If ze molecule is altered in any way, ze gas will not produce ze photo reaction and ze planet will lose eet’s green tint, drastically changing ze outer appearance of ze planet.” Pavel finished.

Khan’s eyes had been glowing in understanding for some time now, but Joachim still didn’t seem to understand.

“Who cares what color the planet is?” The man asked.

“Ze federation will. Eet will send up an immediate red flag to Star Fleet if an uninhabited planet suddenly makes a drastic change in appearance. I vas under ze impression zat we were trying to go unnoticed. If we vanted to dramatically announce our prescence to all of ze Alpha quadrant, zat would be the planet I would choose. Howewer as zat is not our goal, I would recommend going wiz our oszer option.” Pavel said gesturing to the purple planet.

Khan seemed to be valiantly fighting a smile, but as the man didn’t seem to be inclined towards such expressions of pleasure, Pavel chalked it up to his imagination.

Joachim gaped.

Pavel didn’t know this, but Joachim had already given a ringing endorsement for the green planet, claiming its complex and watery terrain would help to hide the process of colonization. Khan had already picked up on the flaw in his choice, but was eager to see if his young human would observe it as well. He was immensely pleased by the boy's decision.

“It seems our choice is obvious.” Khan said turning to Joachim, who was staring at Pavel like he had never seen the boy before. “Have the bridge set a course for (he checks the console for the name) rim planet A43Zb7gR, and let me know when we are in visual range.”

Khan turned smoothly on his heel and left, beckoning Pavel to follow him.

He did.

 

 

Pavel followed Khan into engineering, where Khan sat and beckoned Pavel to explain his now completed Module.

Khan was amused when he observed that the module was shaped like an inverted federation crest. Hand painted in the center of the dark, gleaming metal was a blood red dragon eating its own tail.

Quirking an eyebrow at the modified earth symbol for immortality, Khan regarded Pavel as he ran down a list of the device's features.

"Eet has also been implanted vis an internal, remotely operated impulse propulsion system. Zat way if ze module goes off course after launch, we can correct it remotely." Pavel said, his eyes shining with enthusiasm. "

"And what is the probability of containment failure?" Khan asked.

"Less zan .00238%" Pavel assured him. "Ze outer shell is made from a modified alloy zat is similar to vat is used in starship hulls. Considering ze sheer amount of compressed gasses visin ze canister, I made it a priority."

Khan nodded. They spent several more minutes going over the finer points of the devices calibration and theoretical results before Khan finally indulged his curiosity.

"And what is the functional purpose of the ouroboros?" Khan said dryly. (About as close to teasing as he was currently capable)

Pavel blushed. "I- I szought eet needed someszing. Zat was just vat came to mind."

Khan nodded. "Seeing as it is your device, you could paint unicorns on if for all I care, but I find that all races have some sort of banner that represents them as a whole." He paused for a moment and ran a critical eye over it.

"Would you be opposed if I adopted a version of this design as our emblem?" Khan asked.

Pavel gaped at him for a moment before nodding aggressively, at a loss for words.

Khan gave the tiniest smirk before taking his leave.

 

 

 

Several hours later, Pavel stepped onto the bridge, his new PADD in his arms. He headed straight for the science station to transfer the module specifications to the terminal. After a moment of double-checking the data, Pavel nodded to the augment at the station and turned to leave.

He was halfway across the bridge when Joachim approached, crowding into his space. "Where do you get off." He hissed.

Eyes widening, Pavel stuttered, "V- vat do you mean?"

"You think you have everyone fooled don't you? You are going to be disappointed, though. Khan isn't nearly as taken with you as he lets you think. No matter what you do, or what anyone says, you are human. You will never be one of us." Joachim said, advancing as Pavel slowly backed away.

"You had no right to make me look like an idiot in front of my captain. You have no rights at all. You are a pet. Something to be looked at and cooed over, but you have no say. You don't matter. And in the long run, you will die and we will move on with our lives." Joachim punctuated his rant with a painful jab to Pavel's shoulder. And that was his mistake.

Acting on instinct, Pavel grabbed Joachim's wrist and twisted, wrenching the man's elbow and nearly yanking his arm from the socket. While the Augment was stunned, Pavel kicked out a booted foot and landed a solid blow, but the Augment was ready. He shot out a fist and knocked Pavel back even as he landed hard on the plating of the bridge.

Pavel landed in the Captain's chair, winded and fighting to regain his breath.

Before any of the stunned Augments could react, either to defend Pavel or Joachim, the doors swished open, and Khan walked onto the bridge. The already shocked silent room went deathly still.

Khan's eyes raked over the scene, taking in the horrified looks on his crews faces and Joachim's crumpled form on the bridge's floor before finally settling on Pavel where he sat in the Captains chair. Eyes narrowing, Khan met Pavel's gaze, taking in his reddened cheeks and labored breath. Pavel's eyes watered, fearing Khan's anger at finding him in the Captain's chair, the place he had the least right to be.

Khan took a step into the room, and Pavel (having finally caught his breath) sprang from the chair and took several steps back. "I- I didn't-" Pavel started.

"Joachim." Khan interrupted.

"Captain?" Joachim said, getting up and brushing imaginary dust from his clothing.

"Explain to me why you felt the need to antagonize Pavel to the point where he saw fit to defend himself." Khan's eyes narrowed, piercing Joachim to his core.

The Augment gave an involuntary shiver and said, "I did not intend-"

"What exactly did you intend, Joachim? How exactly did you think the encounter would go? You are far from unintelligent. Did you think that you could put your hands on his person and not receive some backlash? Have you not been aboard this ship for the last week?" Khan derided.

"I- It's not his fault." Pavel said.

Khan turned his arctic glare in Pavel's direction.

The boy met his eyes squarely and did not quail under the man's gaze. "Joachim only meant to woice his displeasure at my actions earlier today. I reacted badly. Eet vas my fault. I should not hawe-"

"Quiet." Khan commanded.

Pavel's mouth clicked shut.

"Touch him again, no matter your intentions, and I will remove the appendage from your body. Am I understood? You are well aware of my views on doing violence to another member of my crew, and like it or not, Pavel _is_ a member of my crew." Khan said, turning his frosty gaze back to his second in command. "You are dismissed."

Joachim beat a hasty retreat, not even pausing to glare in Pavel's direction. Once he was gone, Khan turned back to Pavel, who stood his ground as Khan approached, his long stride eating up the distance.

"Sit." Khan commanded.

Looking uncertain, Pavel slowly lowered himself into the Captain's chair, his eyes widening comically when Khan knelt before him. Without asking, Khan began to unbutton Pavel's coat, smoothing his hand over the mostly bare flesh beneath. Pavel stared up at him, trusting but confused.

"This will bruise, but there doesn't seem to be any damage to the bone structure underneath. I would see John anyway," Khan said looking up into Pavel's wincing gaze.

"Yes, Khan." Pavel murmured.

Nodding, Khan stood and reached out a hand to pull Pavel to his feet.

"Have you transferred the data to the bridge?" Khan asked.

Pavel nodded.

"Good." Khan said, handing Pavel his (thankfully intact) PADD. "You may go."

 

 

 

 

Entering the sickbay, Pavel went directly to an observation table that seemed to be reserved for him. John was looking over some bio readings as a rather masculine female augment towered over him.

"Four more months, I would say." John said, giving the PADD to the woman and indicating something on the screen. "She is developing nicely. Keep taking the stimulants I gave you and come see me in a couple of weeks. Have you decided on a name?"

The woman took the PADD and nodded saying, "Singhara."

John smiled warmly at her. "You're naming her after Khan?"

"She will be the first child born to our species. It is only fitting that I name her for our leader." The augment said.

John nodded his understanding and said his goodbyes. As the woman left she nodded at Pavel respectfully.

Pavel could only gape as John approached. Smiling, John gave him a questioning look.

"She's pregnant?" Pavel asked, voice filled with awe.

John nodded. "The first of what will hopefully be many."

"Who ees ze fazer?"

"I'm not sure." John said, smiling ruefully.

Pavel gave him a strange look.

Laughing, John said, "Augments are very sensitive about tests and what they will submit to. Honestly if they weren't always cutting each other open on a sparring mat, I would be out of a job. Talea doesn't want to know who the father is. I have a DNA sample from every member of this crew, and one was randomly selected to be combined with her genetic material for the purpose of creating a child. It will be an easy thing to find out later, but for now, she doesn't want to know."

Pavel smiled at the idea of a tiny Augment running around the ship causing trouble and being spoiled by every member of the ship.

"Now," John said, "What have you done now?"

Saying nothing, Pavel bared his chest to show John the spreading bruise that was blossoming across his skin.

John froze, and his warm, open expression hardened into something cold and deadly.

"Who put this here?" He whispered, for it was painfully obvious that the bruise was in the shape of an open palm.

"Sparring accident." Pavel said, quickly. Too quickly.

John glared up at Pavel for a moment before huffing and shaking his head.

"I would tell you to take it easy until this fades some, but I know how much trouble you get yourself into. Just don't go making it worse, alright?" John said, ruffling Pavel's curls.

Pavel giggled and swatted his hand away. "I promise."

 

 

 

A dark, murderous gaze followed Pavel as he left sickbay and headed back toward his quarters, following as he rounded the corner. Feeling a prickle at the back of his neck, Pavel turned.

 

 

 

_Oh god. Had he slept through his alarm? He had class today didn't he? What day was it?_

Consciousness came back slowly, Pavel's mind fighting hard to bring all of his faculties back online. With awareness came a deep throbbing pain in his chest (expected), numbness in his chilled fingers (normal), and a ringing in his ears.... (worrisome).

Pavel slowly raised his eyelids, feeling as if they were weighted down by tons of bricks. He was in the corridor. Exactly where he was when he, apparently, lost consciousness. Suddenly on alert, Pavel took stock of his physical condition again. Strangely, he couldn't find any physical indication as to why he had lost consciousness.

More worried than ever, Pavel took in his surroundings. The lights in the corridor had gone out, red hazard lights flashed along the walls, and Pavel could see the glimmer of a force field just behind where he lay on the floor.

Climbing to his feet, Pavel began to slowly follow the path of the corridor. It seemed to stretch out endlessly before him. Pavel turned to the first door he came across, but it refused to open to admit him. Every door he tried remained stoically dark and silent until he came to a stop in front of the turbo lift. Stepping forward, Pavel half expected it to refuse him entry, leaving him trapped in the hall, but the doors swished open merrily, revealing the brightly lit turbo lift within.

Stepping inside, Pavel commanded, "Bridge." It was immediately apparent, however, that the lift had other plans, when it began moving down. Some time later, the doors opened to show that the lift had taken him to cargo bay 1.

Storage containers of various sizes littered the vast expanse of the dark room, casting ominous shadows over each other and lending an overall creepy vibe to the whole place. Pavel moved cautiously among the boxes until he came to a terminal partway into the room.

Just as he stood over the terminal, it beeped for an incoming transmission, secure line from the federation. Pavel opened communications.

 _Hello, Pavel._ Sulu said.

Startled and confused, Pavel said. "Hikaru? How did you get ze frequency to ze Vengeance?"

 _I'm the one asking the questions._ Sulu hissed. _Like, 'how are you, Pavel' or 'what are you up to?' or 'how does it feel, knowing that you betrayed not only the federation, but also the human race?'_

"I didn't betray anyvone!" Pavel protested. "Zey kidnapped me! I did not choose to abandon my crew!"

 _You didn't try very hard to stay, though did you? Why is that, I wonder. Where you so hard up for the Augment that you couldn't help yourself? I have eyes, Pavel. You were practically gagging for it!_ Sulu hissed, growing even more vehement as he went on. _Has he fucked you yet? Did you lay down and take it like a bitch in heat? Or did you seduce him, bat those pretty eyes and waggle that ass?_

"S- Stop eet. I didn't-" Pavel protested.

_Didn't you? I've been watching, Pavel. Do you know how hard it was to work my way into the Vengeance's systems? Very. I still haven't gained full access. Lights, force fields, surveillance, minor things like that are all I could manage, and how lucky you are for that. I would cut life support and vacuum you all out into space in a heartbeat._

"Have you told ze Federation vere we are?" Pavel asked, horrified. "Please, I don't care vat you do to me, but leave my crew alone. Zey didn't-"

 _Your crew?_ Sulu said, eyes darkening with a dark, manic anger that frightened Pavel deeply. _So you have joined them, you little traitorous whore! I should have beat your fascination with those abominations out of you while I had the chance! But don't worry. You won't live for much longer._

A sick, twisted smile slashed across his face like an open wound. _You see, I have just enough control over the Vengeance to lock you into a cargo bay and open the doors. There is a small shuttle in the back, and all of your precious crew members will think that you died trying to escape. Wouldn't it be a shame, to have your new friends open the doors to see you tried to give their location to Star Fleet? Think how betrayed they will be._

Pavel was crying now, his face red from the failed effort of holding back his tears. "No, please-"

Sulu laughed and continued, _You should have known your place, Pavel. Had you just been a good boy and kept your mouth shut, you could still be on the Enterprise. You could be with ME! You were MINE, and they took you from me! Unforgiveable!_

Sulu was raging now, his face red and spittle flying from his mouth as he roared, _So now I'm going to destroy you! You won't even have your stupid Augments to remember you by. I've planted false information on your personal terminals, and once you are gone, the Augments will never trust another human. There will be war, and the Federation will slaughter the Augments like pigs! They will all-_

"I believe that is quite enough." Came the cold, furious voice of Khan Noonian Singh from the darkness. The Captain stepped into the light with a look of such cold fury on his face that Pavel quailed, sobbing harder, but Khan had focused his laser-like gaze on Sulu, lip curled in distain and snarling his fury.

 _Khan!_ Sulu hissed, trying to hide his fear, even over such a distance. _You-_

"You are not allowed to speak!" Khan roared over his words. "You have irritated me quite enough for my limited patience, and it is past time you be dealt with. Permanently."

Khan moved to the terminal and tapped a few keys. Lights in the cargo bay returned to normal and the force field that had locked Pavel in the cargo bay upon his entrance disappeared. "Were you really idiotic enough to think that I wouldn't notice your presence in my computer systems? I knew about the breach the moment you gained access. All of your changes have been reversed and you have been blocked from all systems, even the most trivial."

Khan tapped keys to fast for the eyes to follow for a few moments before continuing. "You will now find that I have reprogrammed your terminal to emit a low frequency electric stream, paralyzing your body while simultaneously heightening the sensitivity of all of the nerves in your body.”

Khan slid his finger across the controls. “And now I have intensified the electric current to an intensity that is fatal to humans. You will be dead in the next ten minutes, and the best part is that you will be both unable to move and quite able to feel every painful moment. It will feel like an eternity. And I would relish every moment, but Pavel will not wish to watch you die.”

Turning, Khan gently lifted Pavel’s trembling form from where he stood by the terminal. Ashamed at being carried but to overwrought to protest, Pavel wrapped his arms around Khans neck and burrowed his face into the crook of the man’s neck, doing his best to stifle his sobs.

Khan said nothing until they reached the door to the Captain’s quarters, where he paused before saying, “I understand that you would prefer to be alone, but-” Khan broke off when Pavel’s limbs clung to him impossibly tighter, and the boy shook his head vigorously against the side of Khan’s neck.

“Alright.” Khan murmured, his voice more gentle than Pavel had ever heard it. Walking to the door of the Captain’s quarters, Khan entered and gently settled Pavel down onto the bed. To Pavel’s embarrassment, he was unable to force his hands from around Khan’s neck. Unfazed, Khan sank onto the huge bed with him, boots and all.

“You’re alright, Pavel. I’m not going to leave. Relax, and get some sleep. I’m not going anywhere.” Khan assured the boy.

Pavel did his best to burrow even deeper into Khan, and closed his eyes, thinking he could never sleep after what he had just endured.

He was wrong.

After Pavel’s breathing deepened, slow and even, Khan gently reached for the PADD on his bedside table. He sent a message to the bridge saying he wasn’t to be disturbed unless the ship was crashing then locked his door. Replacing the PADD on the table, Khan kicked off his and Pavel’s boots and did his best to relax long enough to get a couple hours of sleep, soothed by the thought that Sulu would never hurt Pavel again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> my laptop is dying so I will add the little divider images later :)


	10. Launch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There really are no words.

 

 

Pavel wakes up warm. Huh. Weird.

 

He opens his eyes reluctantly. Wow, he had slept like the dead. The boy was wrapped in a cocoon of warmth that seemed at odds with the biting chill that nipped at his nose where it poked out above the covers.

Squirming a little, Pavel turned on his back, accidentally jabbing his elbow into the headboard. It grunted.

Okaaaaaaay. Not a headboard then.

Pavel’s eyes widened and he gasped as the events of yesterday came flooding back, along with a vivid awareness of exactly why he was so warm.

Risking a glance over his shoulder, Pavel turned and locked eyes with a particularly grumpy looking Khan.

Silver eyes narrowed, Khan hissed, “Elbow me again and you will be sleeping on the floor.” Before turning and wrapping Pavel securely in his steely arms.

Pavel forces his widened eyes shut, resolved to freak out at a later date. Preferably where Khan couldn’t see.

Pavel sighed expansively before, unexpectedly, slipping back into a sleep so deep he didn’t even notice when Khan carefully slipped from the bed to resume his duties as captain.

 

 

Much later, Pavel woke to a very persistent call from his bladder. Springing from the bed, Pavel dashed to the facilities to relieve himself before being, again, assaulted with the realization that he had slept in Khans bed, that Khan had dashed to his rescue, this time against the federation. It stung to know that every friend he’d ever had probably thought him a traitor, but even worse, was that Khan probably thought he needed saving.

He had worked hard to make the Augments believe he could hold his own. He wasn’t a burden. “I’m not!” He urged himself, as he made his way to his own quarters to change clothes.

But that’s exactly what they were going to think once word spread that he just stood there and cried while Khan rushed to his rescue. Couldn’t he do anything right? No. He couldn’t, could he? No matter how hard he tried, Pavel would always be biologically inferior to every member of this crew. _His_ crew.

“I vill just hawe to get better.” Pavel whispered to himself as he laced his boots. “I _hawe_ to get better.”

 

 

Khan frowned from where he sat in his office. Formerly the office of the late Admiral Marcus. He had been watching Pavel’s interactions with his crew since the boy first arrived, but something seemed to be troubling him. Something new. Perhaps he was shaken by his brush with death, or the fact that his attacker was once a friend and colleague. But no. That didn’t seem to be it.

The boy didn’t walk with the stride of one who was scared or defeated, Khan noticed as he tracked the boy’s progress through the ship on his monitor. His stride was one of purpose, perhaps even anger, and that worried Khan.

What had happened? What could possibly be going through the boy’s mind? Frustrated, Khan closed the program and stood. He had other duties to attend, and the confusing young boy causing havoc in his head and on his ship was not his most pressing concern.

Khan strode from his office and onto the bride, pushing thoughts of Pavel to the back of his mind. “Status report.” He ordered.

“The last of the scans on the planet have come back, sir.” The man said, his green eyes never leaving the terminal.

“And?” Khan pressed, impatient.

“We’re all good, Captain. A few probes were damaged by the, somewhat less than friendly, plant life, but all of the reports we received show positive feedback. I recommend that we move into the terraforming stage as soon as possible,” The Augment said.

“Good. The module is ready. Notify the crew to prep it for use and transport it to the torpedo pay for deployment.” Khan said, feeling the slightest tickle of excitement in the pit of his stomach.

“Sir,” The Augment, Cole, acknowledged before typing rapidly on his console and sending the message through to engineering.

Khan nodded his goodbye to the man before leaving the bridge in search of his human crew member. It would not do to begin this process without him.

 

 

Khan found Pavel pounding ford into a sparring mat. Literally.

Ford was on his back, hands pinned beneath Pavel’s legs in such a way that he could easily break free. Doing so, however, would likely harm Pavel in the process.

From his position atop Ford’s chest, Pavel seemed to be doing his best to break every one of the Augment’s ribs. Ford met Khan’s gaze over Pavel’s shoulder as Khan took in the situation and the room full of reluctant onlookers. The augment’s gaze held more worry than pain. There was only so much damage Pavel could do to the Augment without doing harm to himself as well.

It seemed, however, that Pavel cared little about how much damage he was doing to his own hands. Ford’s white t-shirt was stained red in places, where Pavel’s knuckles had split and the boy was leaving blood in the cloth.

“WHY?!” Pavel’s voice rang out, jerking Khan from his thoughts.

No one answered, and the boy continued, “Fight back, damnit! Zere ees no holding back on ze sparring mat!” Pavel landed another hard blow. This time to Ford’s jaw.

“Why?” Pavel cried again, almost sobbing. His limbs moved slower as exhaustion crept up his arms.

“I will not spar you when you are in this state.” Ford murmured, his sad eyes breaking Khan’s gaze to look up into Pavel’s tear stained face.

“I’m fine.” Pavel protested. “Zere ees noszing-“ His voice broke, belying his words.

Pavel’s fingers fisted in the material of Ford’s shirt. Tears rolling down his cheeks to pattern the material. The boy’s body shook with heaving sobs as he sat atop Ford, too weak to get up.

Khan moved forward from where he had been frozen in place. He lifted Pavel easily from Ford’s chest and into his arms. He was not, however, expecting Pavel to protest this treatment.

Burdened by Pavel’s weight, and unwilling to drop him, Khan was unable to block the blow that he saw coming. Pavel’s fist landed at the base of Khan’s throat, but the Augment refused to toss the boy to the ground like his instincts demanded. He caught Pavel’s wrists in one large hand and quickly strode out of the training room and into the nearest empty space, an unused space that housed several coils and backup terminals.

He dropped Pavel’s struggling form gently onto a box and took a step back, putting distance between himself and Pavel’s fists.

The boy looked up at his Captain with huge hazel eyes, wet and crackling with fury.

“I am not a toy zat you can pick up and mowe as you please!” Pavel hissed. “I do not need or vant your help. Vis anyszing!”

Khan cocked his head and glared coldly. “Would you rather I let you sit atop my crew member and punch him until you pass out, while the rest of the crew looks on in pity?” Khan’s eyes narrowed. “No, this isn’t about that, is it? This is about yesterday. Why?”

“I don’t need-“ Pavel started.

“No,” Khan cut in. “You did need my help. You did not, however, want it. But I do not care what you want, Chekov. Had I cared what you wanted you would still be aboard the enterprise, underutilized and underappreciated. I gave you what you _needed._ You needed me to prevent Sulu from ending your life. Had you been thinking clearly, you could have easily done it yourself. You were not.”

Khan took a step closer, crowding into Pavel’s space and hissing down at him, “That is exactly how you and I are different. You are perfectly capable of matching me in any intellectual field, however you allow your emotions and your humanity to interfere. You will never be what I am, Chekov, therefore you will invariably need assistance at some point or another. It is childish to begrudge someone for coming to your aid. Had I not, you would be dead, therefore I interceded on your behalf. It is that simple.”

“If you care so little, zen why didn’t you just let him kill me?” Pavel said, attempting to shove Khan out of his space, and only achieving marginal success. “Why ewen take me in ze first place?”

“Because you are brilliant!” Khan roared. “I looked into your eyes and I saw intelligence and sheer potential that equaled only what I had found only amongst Augment kind. You looked at me and you saw a person. You allowed your mind to determine who I was and did not let petty emotions like fear cloud your judgment, and that is the least human thing I have seen one of your kind do since before I was Augmented.”

Khan gripped Pavel by the lapels of his jacket and yanked him closer. “I could not allow the federation to destroy someone with so much pure potential, and whether you like it or not, you have chosen your fate. You are stuck with us, so whatever problem you have with me or my kind, you had best work it out without doing violence to anyone else.”

Khan stalked away, headed for the door, but Pavel called out, “I’m just tired of eet!”

Khan spun, pinning Pavel with a searching look.

“I’m sick and tired of needing to be sawed!” Pavel continued. “I’m so weak compared to eweryone else in ze crew. I feel inferior, like no one vill take me seriously. Had I been anyvone else, Ford would hawe thrown me off, and made me deal vis ze injury zat caused. I know he could hawe! But because I’m weak, human, he sat zere and took eet. He was barely ewen fazed by my blows. How can I go szrew life being treated like some fragile doll?”

“Every member of this crew knows and respects your capabilities.” Khan said. “But they are all aware of your limitations. What sort of crew would they be if they ignored your limits just to allow you to save face? They cannot stand idly by and allow you to struggle when it is an easy matter just to lend aid. It is no different from allowing a human member of your former crew to aid you. Just because your limitations are different from ours does not mean that you are inferior. You excel in areas that we do not. The reverse in also true. Taking it as an insult when your crew offers aid is not only illogical, but it is also insulting.”

“I don’t care if I need help.” Pavel whispered. “I just vish I didn’t need eet so often. I vant to feel like I can handle myself.”

“That will come with time.” Khan assured him. “The bond between you and my crew is new and you have not yet discovered your true place among us. Give it time.”

Pavel nodded, wiping his face.

Khan gave him the tiniest smile, and said, “Good. Now, we are about to launch your probe. A came to get you. A device’s creator should be there on its maiden voyage.” Khan beckoned and Pavel followed him into the corridor and to the bridge to watch his terraforming module be launched into the atmosphere of their future home, and if Pavel curled his fingers into the soft material at the back of Khan’s shirt as they walked, well, Khan would let it slide this one time.

 

 

 

The module worked spectacularly, and the gathered Augments roared their approval as the monitors and terminals reported the new and stabilizing atmosphere. Within 24 hours, the air would be at breathable levels, and the first away team would be sent down to begin construction on a dock for the (stupidly large) USS Vengeance.

There was little to do other than wait for the construction to be complete at this point. Minor changes to the atmosphere may be needed but once the port construction was completed, the USS Vengeance would dock herself permanently in her new home and the crew would begin construction on the start of a colony.

There was a lot of work ahead, but spirits were high, and the crew was eager to get started with building their new lives.

Khan looked around at his crew and couldn’t suppress a fond smile. His eyes landed on Pavel and he took in the boy’s profile. He was standing against the wall gazing out distractedly at the swirling Purple planed on the bridge’s view screen, a tiny smile playing at the corners of his mouth.

John walked over to Pavel, but Khan was distracted by Joachim drawing him into a conversation.

 

 

Pavel looked up as John settled in beside him, looking up at their new home. “You did good.” John said.

“I didn’t do anyszing. Ze crew did most of ze work.” Pavel protested.

“Not true.” John shook his head. “Without your terraforming module, this wouldn’t be possible.”

“Nah, eet would just be a lot harder.” Pavel said.

“Can’t you just take a damn complement?” John asked, without heat.

“Sorry.” Pavel whispered.

“I know you are feeling down about something,” John said. “And I also know that it’s none of my business, but if you need to talk, my door is always open to you. Anything you decide to share will stay between us, but keeping it in isn’t good for you. Sometimes the best remedy is a good person to vent to.”

John patted Pavel gently on the shoulder before making his way over to the other Augments. Pavel to the opportunity to slip quietly from the room. He went to engineering to tinker with another small project he had been working on and to keep his mind off of the small worries that were plaguing him about his future.

The device was a variant of the portable trans-warp beaming device that was recently released in Beta from star fleet’s science lab. Instead of each device containing a miniature transporter, the complexity of which limited its functional size and range, the device Pavel was tinkering with would utilize a large beaming device that would power multiple small beacons and react to orders given from a small hand held device. Much like a communicator signals a ship’s crew to beam someone, the tiny device will signal an entirely automatic device within this core beaming device to move the designated person or object as desired. Though the core of the device would have to be rather large to have such a long remote range, a beaming device the size of a two story building would theoretically have the ability to transport everyone in a small city from place to place simultaneously. Of course Pavel was still in the drawing and mathematic formula stage of this project, but the applications of such a device would be limitless, both as a work tool and a means of public transportation.

Pavel allowed himself to get sucked into the fascinating and complex turns of his own imagination, forgetting about his worries and losing himself to science.

 

Nearly six hours later, the doors to Pavel’s quarters were pushed open and Pavel turned, wincing at the crick in his neck from sitting at his terminal for so long.

Khan stepped into the room, looking around before his attention zeroed in on Pavel at his desk.

“You left quietly.” Khan said.

“I wanted to be alone.” Pavel said, giving Khan a significant look, which Khan easily ignored.

“The module is complete, is it not?” Khan asked.

Confused, Pavel nodded.

Khan gestured to the terminal. “You are working on something. Something new?”

Pavel hesitated before saying, “Eet is just an idea. Barely more zan schematics and formulas at zis point.”

Khan seemed curious, so Pavel explained the idea and the concepts behind it.

Khan nodded, thinking. “I used a Portable trans-warp beaming device to escape after I destroyed the archives. A useful thing, that.”

Pavel stiffened at the mention of the archives. It was easy to forget that Khan had killed 43 people in the archive explosion. Even more if you counted the war room he destroyed in an attempt to kill Admiral Marcus. He spoke of it as if it was a small thing, the lives of so many.

“Perhaps I should newer create zis, zen.” Pavel said, angrily. “If eet is going to be used in such a vay. Why should I create someszing zat will only make eet easier for a criminal to escape justice?”

“Is that how you see me?” Khan asked, dispassionately. “As a criminal, trying to escape justice?”

“No.” Pavel said, shaking his head. “Zough, perhaps I should. I used to.”

“How do you see me, then?” Khan murmured, stepping closer.

Pavel craned his neck to look up at Khan, then stood, inadvertently bringing them that much closer.

“I see you as a man. A Captain who ees willing to do anyszing to ensure ze safety of his crew.” Pavel said. “Had Admiral Marcus not attempted to use ze people you lowe against you, you would not hawe been forced into such extreme action. Ze amount of corruption wiszin Star Fleet is probably still unkown, and wiszout knowing ze exact reach zat Admiral Marcus held, eet would be impossible to seek aid from wiszin ze Federation. All of your decisions make sense on a logical lewel, but I still find myself unable to picture doing zose szings, had I been in your place.”

Pavel shook his head and looked up into Khan’s icy blue eyes. “Perhaps zat just outlines ze exact differences between humans and ze Augments, but my emotions would not hawe allowed me to sacrifice ze liwes of oszers. Ewen for my crew and myself. I cannot judge you for doing anyszing necessary to sawe ze liwes of your crew, howewer, I cannot condone taking ze liwes of innocents in ze process. Eet is a moral impasse zat I hawe no way to figure out.”

“Do you thing less of me for having been so ruthless?” Khan asked, his eyes glinting with some strange emotion in the dim light.

“I cannot.” Pavel said. “I accepted your actions and ruthlessness and being a part of you when we met. I already knew you were capable of such wiolence, discowering ze reason behind ze act only made me better able to understand you as a person.”

“And what do you think of me?” Khan asked, whispering. “As a person.”

“I- I-“ Pavel stammered. “I… like you.” Pavel blushed at his admission.

“Why? When I have given you so many reasons to think ill of me.” Khan asked, leaning infinitesimally closer.

“Because you hawe such dedication. You protect zose you care about wiz eweryszing you hawe, and wiz no szought to your own safety. You are willing to do anyszing to fight for what you beliewe in, and I admire your strength, and your ability to make ze best decision despite vat your emotions on ze matter may be.” Pavel explained. “Your crew wanted you to lead for a reason. Eet is not just because you are ze most impressive of ze group. You hawe an intensity zat burns inside you. Eet shines from your eyes when you speak of your crew or your hopes for ze future. To hawe liwed such a hard life, you are filled wiz so much hope and so many dreams for what your liwes could be. Eet is enthralling.”

Khan stared into Pavel’s eyes, seeing the truth of his words there, shinning from the huge hazel pools. “Of the two of us, I am by far the least enthralling.” Khan said, their faces only inches apart, breath mingling in the cool air. “I would very much like to-“ Khan was interrupted by his communicator chirping. Without backing up so much as an inch, Khan answered the device, his eyes locked on Pavel’s.

“Yes?”

“Captain. The atmosphere has stabilized enough for a short trip. Should I send an away team to scout out the area we decided on?” Joachim’s voice came from the communicator.

“Do it. Khan out.” The Augment tossed the device on Pavel’s desk, and lunged, closing the minimal distance that separated them. His lips crashed down onto Pavel’s as he stole what he hoped would be the first of many kisses to come.

Khan kissed much like Pavel expected. It was fierce and demanding. Overwhelming and intense. But as much as the kiss was as expected, it still surprised Pavel with its sheer ferocity. It was all Pavel could do to take the kiss, let alone reciprocate. All too soon, Pavel felt the pressing need for air, and gripped Khan’s shoulders in warning.

Khan broke the kiss and pressed their foreheads together. “Never have I met someone who could strain the bonds of to such an extent. You are a puzzle that could lose myself in for ages and still not solve.” The augment said. “I look forward to trying, however.”

Khan pressed another quick kiss to Pavel’s lips before exiting, leaving Pavel bewildered and short of breath. There wasn’t much Pavel understood about what had just happened, however Pavel did understand one thing. He liked it. A lot.

 

 

 

After waking up miserable and feeling strangely unfulfilled, Pavel ate a quick breakfast before making his way to engineering. The terraforming module had been retrieved from the planet’s surface, and Pavel wanted to inspect the devices condition before moving on to work on his new project. Despite his words to Khan the day before, Pavel had no intention of stopping his work. He found it nearly impossible to abandon a project once inspiration had struck.

After several hours in engineering, Pavel took a break and made his way to the training room on search of Ford but was informed that he was banned from use of it by the doctor, and was spending the day in the infirmary. Feeling thoroughly shitty about his behavior the day before, Pavel made his way to sick bay to see the man.

Ford was in the bed directly across from John’s desk in the center of the room. John, noting his presence first, made himself scarce so the two could talk. Ford turned, noticing the Doctor’s absence and noticed Pavel, giving him a wry smile.

“What’s up kid?” He asked.

Unable to handle Ford being so nice to him, Pavel Dashed forward and hit his knees before Ford’s table. “I’m so sorry!” Pavel cried. “I needed a stress outlet, but I had no right to take eet out on you. Especially knowing zat you would not fight me back. I intentionally caused you harm, and zat is unforgiweable.”

Ford huffed and yanked Pavel easily off the floor. “Don’t ever kneel for anyone, kid.” Ford admonished. “And it’s fine. I’ve taken worse from people I liked a lot less. We all have our moments of weakness. Who am I to begrudge you yours? Besides you did quite a bit of damage for someone who was holding back so much. You really need to learn how to pull your punches more, kid. Six broken ribs. The Doc wants to keep me until tomorrow for observation, but I’m going to be fine. Besides, we have much more interesting things to talk about.”

Ford grinned down at Pavel mysteriously before saying, “So is there any reason that the boss has been walking around all day with a silly grin on his face?”

Blushing to the roots of his hair, Pavel stammered out something intelligible before making a dash for the sick bay doors, Ford’s laughter ringing out behind him. He paused though, just outside, and smiled to himself. The thought that he might be the reason for Khan’s good mood was a heady one. Pavel had no idea how their next interaction would go, but he was more than excited to find out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally!!! Man when I tag slow burn, I mean it don't I? LOL


	11. Indeed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pavel gets a visitor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What's up? Been a while. Sorry. Life happened.

Pavel stared up at the two men before him, a look of anger and confusion on his face.

“I don’t understand. Who deed you say you vere again?” Pavel gritted out.

“We are Kuba.” The closer of the two answered.

“Right, you said zat before, but zat doesn’t ansver my question.” Pavel said, anger rising.

“Our purpose is to teach you the Augment way.” The quieter of the two said.

“And vat, exactly ees it zat I am to learn?” Pavel asked, looking from one to the other.

“Ruthlessness.” The quiet one said, seemingly being intentionally vague.

“We are to teach you to keep a tighter rein on your emotions. The boss seems to believe you would benefit from learning a bit more discretion.” The closer said.

“Right.” Pavel said, dubiously. “How am I to tell you two apart zen?”

The pair blinked at him with equally identical and disconcerting gazes, each unreadable.

“”Why?”” They asked, simultaneously.

“Eesn’t eet a bit rude if I don’t know who I’m addressing?” Pavel asked, unsure.

“We are Kuba.” The closer said.

“You said zat.” Pavel sighed in frustration. “Don’t you hawe first names?”

The two shared a look and seemed to contemplate the question for a moment.

“If you insist we distinguish ourselves, I suppose you should call me Homa. My younger brother is Miso.” The closer of the two said.

Pavel nodded, “Good to meet you.”

Homa hummed his assent and returned to the topic at hand.

“The boss thinks you are of the opinion that you are deficient in some way. Though he expressed his disagreement, he sought us out to help you overcome your perceived shortcomings,” Homa explained.

“Vhich ones?” Pavel asked, warily.

Homa seemed to contemplate the question for a moment before saying, “You expressed frustration with your inability to master your emotions and make decisions solely based on logic. We are to help you develop the ability to look past any moral and emotional aspects of a dilemma and make a decision based on logic. Doing so will not only serve to make your decisions more productive and beneficial to you in the long run, but also to help you overcome any moral backlash you may experience as a result of such hard choices at a later date.”

“You vant to make me more logical?” Pavel asked.

“Only if that Is what it takes to improve your decision making skills to a satisfactory degree.” Homa said.

Pavel contemplated that for a second before nodding and saying, “Alright. Vere do we start?”

 

 

 

Over the next few days, Pavel spent quite a lot of time with the twins. Between solving a seemingly endless supply of logic problems, sparring with anyone willing to brave his wrath in the sparring ring, and working on his new project (to which he had begun to add a series of failsafes that would allow the authorities to prevent the technology to be used by anyone wanted for crimes) time passed fairly quickly.

Pavel was in the middle of explaining his decision on the latest of a string of seemingly impossible choices to Miso.

He had quite a hard time making a decision on this one. The problem presented was: An anonymous message is sent to you stating that, should this message be forwarded to the police, the sender would murder an elderly woman who was active in charity work. Should he fail to contact the police, the sender would instead murder a young school teacher who prided herself on helping every student succeed.

Either way, one or the other would die. It was up to Pavel to choose. There was no answer that his morality would agree with. No matter his decision, he would be almost directly responsible for the death of an innocent. The only option would be to find the lesser of two evils.

Having such a strong moral compass, and an instinctual need to protect the innocent, this was no easy choice, no matter how hypothetical the situation.

After nearly thirty minutes of deliberation, Pavel finally decided. “- I chose her only because she vould have much less of an opportunity to-”

He was interrupted by the sound of the ship going on red alert.

“All crew to battle stations.” Khan’s steely voice commanded over the comms. “Star Fleet vessel inbound.”

 

 

 

For a moment, Pavel experienced a strange sense of duality. It was as if the world around him had both sped to a blurring speed and simultaneously slowed to a crawl. Fear shot through him first. A deep and instinctual terror for those he had come to consider his family. The Federation posed a dire threat to everyone aboard the ship, including himself, traitor and turncoat that he was.

Clarity returned to Pavel like a bucket of water to the face. Federation vessel. He could think of only one vessel that could follow them through deep space so closely. Terror washed through him anew, but his body seemed to have a mind of its own. Before he even registered having moved, Pavel was out the door of his room and bolting down the hall like a dark streak. He didn’t slow until he came to the turbo lift, jigging in place while he waited to reach the bridge.

The doors swooshed open and Pavel bolted onto the bridge, vaulting the railing and nearly colliding with the back of Khan’s chair. Breathing hard, Pavel clutched the material of the seat and stared with horror filled eyes at the view screen.

It was as he feared. There the Enterprise was, displayed in all her glory for crew to see. Khan, barely sparing Pavel a glance, was having a heated discussion with the science officer to his left.

“Every. Last. One!” Khan growled.

“Two more sir. The Enterprise will intercept us in approximately five minutes. The away team is beaming back as fast as they can, but it will be close. We have to have those shields up before soon or we will be in trouble.” The man stressed.

“I don’t care what it takes, tell them to get their asses on this ship! I will not chance leaving them on the surface while in a dangerous situation.” Khan ordered.

“Yes, Captian.”

The man hurried away and began fervently tapping away at his terminal. Not a moment later the man reported, with much relief, “Got them sir! Raising shields.”

Not a moment later, the Enterprise fell out of warp and hovered regally just off the port side.

“We’re being hailed, sir,” An officer said from the comms.

“On screen, but keep it in close, we wouldn’t want to give them any advantage.” Khan instructed, straightening his spine and adopting an all-too-familiar stony expression.

The screen flickered, and Kirk’s face came into view, Spock tight on his right side. Kirk’s eyes narrowed, no doubt irked by his limited view of the bridge. But it soon slipped into his usual cocky smile.

“Found ya!” He said, grinning.

Khan held his stony expression, only quirking a brow.

Kirk’s smile slipped a little before he seemed to sober and draw up straighter.

“I’ve been waiting for this moment for months.” Kirk hissed.

“And what moment would that be, exactly?” Khan asked blandly.

“The moment when I get to see you pay for all of the lives you took! Don’t you dare sit there like a king on his throne and pretend like you didn’t kill hundreds of people for your petty revenge! How many lives did you ruin? How many families did you tear apart?” Kirk ranted, cheeks going ruddy his finger pointing jerkily at Khan through the barrier of space between them.

“Oh, please, captain. Don’t pretend you don’t understand my motivations. Blinded as you are by sentiment and a strangely spotty sense of morality, you still understand simple concepts such as loyalty. You would do anything to protect those you see as yours. You already have, haven’t you? You nearly threw away your entire career, put the lives of your entire crew in danger, and for what? One man. Where is the logic in that? How does that weigh on your scale of morality?” Khan pinned Kirk with a knowing gaze, and smirked. “Don’t pretend that you are so superior when I know you are just as guilty as I, if in different ways.”

“Don’t you dare compare me to you! Do you even know the scope of the horror you caused? The amount of blood on your hands?” Kirk roared. “I want them back! I want all of them back, Admiral Pike, Sulu, Chekov. I’ve lost so many people I care about because of you and your stupid vendetta! And for what? Freedom? You were already free! You don’t know what it means to be imprisoned, but you are going to learn.” Near the end, Kirks voice dropped low into a cold whisper, his ice blue eyes chilled Pavel to his core. He knew what that look meant, and it never turned out well for the one on the receiving end.

Khan turned suddenly to look Pavel in the eye, seemingly searching for something. Whatever it was, he seemed to find it, for after a moment, he turned back to an increasingly irritated Kirk, who never took gracefully to being ignored.

“What ever gave you the impression that Pavel had come to harm?” Khan said, staring placidly in the face of Kirk’s ire.

“Gee, I don’t know. Maybe it was the fact that you kidnapped him? Grabbed him bodily and carried him kicking and screaming from my ship and we never heard from him again? With your history, It wasn’t a hard assumption to make.” Kirk grit out, sarcastically.

“Only fools make assumptions.” Khan retorted, coolly.

“If you didn’t kill him, then where is he? Dumped on the first M class planet you passed on your way out of the Alpha quadrant?” Kirk barked. “Give him _back!_ ”

“Perhaps it would be wiser to allow him to choose where he wants to be, hmm? I would think someone of such _high moral standing_ as yourself would be reluctant to remove him from where he truly wants to be.” Khan said, sneering.

“He aboard the ship.” Spock interjected, speaking for the first time. “No. On the _bridge._ I’ve heard no sound, so he’s either too frightened to speak up, or he is exactly where he wants to be. Curious. Evidence seems to point to the latter.”

“Stockholm syndrome! It must be. There is no way Chekov would agree to stay with that- that- Murderer! Not on his own. They did something to him!” Kirk accused.

 

 

Finally having enough of their wild speculation, Pavel barked, “I am pwerfectly capable of speaking for myself! I am not so veak villed as to bow to anyvone who glares and shakes hees fist. I vould szank you to treak me like an adult and not speak ower me as if I am not here!”

Shocked into silence by Pavel’s outburst coming from off screen, Kirk could only blink at Khan as he tried to get a view of Pavel in his place off screen. Khan smirked and said nothing for a moment. Then, “You come at us like a peacock, fluffed up and prancing, acting the part of the righteous hero, but you know you are outmatched. You aren’t even supposed to be here. You took a gamble and came after us on the slim chance that if you returned with the infamous Khan in tow, you would be forgiven for going against orders _again_ and putting your entire crew at risk. Am. I. Wrong?”

Kirk snarled silently, but said nothing.

“What did you hope to achieve, outmatched as you are?” Khan asked cocking his head to the side.

“Anything!” Kirk barked. “Anything would be better than sitting around doing nothing when I could be going after the man who destroyed so many lives. What else could I do?”

“Let eet go!” Pavel shouted, stepping into view of the screen. “You should hawe let eet go! You knew vhy Khan did vat he did. You knew his reasons and zat he acted under duress. When you reciewed ze order to let eet be and let us be banished officially, you should hawe listened, but you newer let anyszing go! You newer could, and now you have ruined eweryszing! We were trying to build a home! We are making a colony so we can liwe out our days in peace. Start families. Maybe hawe a chance to be people! Vy can’t you just let us go in peace?”

 

It was quiet for a long moment before Kirk murmured. “We, you said. ‘US’. What does that mean? Are you one of them now?”

“I’ve been one of them for a long time, Kirk.” Pavel said softly.

“Kirk. Not captain. You really have changed sides.” Kirk said, shaking his head. He eyes Pavel up and down for a moment, taking in the many and varying changes the boy had undergone in his time with the Augments.

He still cut a lean figure. His hair, slightly longer, was no longer brushed into a regulation style. His tight blond curls were wild, crowning his head with a slightly tousled halo. His time on the sparring mat had hardened his wiry muscles, broadening his shoulders and making him look much more adult, though he was barely over eighteen.

Clad in his long, dark coat, Pavel’s chest peeked through, showing his chest where he had forgone a shirt. His tight, strong legs were sheathed in a set of black leather pants that looked almost painted on. Heavy boots covered his feet and only served to make him seem even more serious.

Gone was the boundless, jittery energy that had seemed to emanate from the youth. It was keener now, sharpened into a laser like focus that was disconcerting when projected from his pale eyes. The boy that Kirk had known was well and truly gone. In his place stood a man. A dangerous man.

“Consider zis my formal resignation, Keptin Kirk.” Pavel said, eyes hard.

Kirk seemed at a loss for what to say for a long moment before finally, sadly replying, “Resignation accepted.”

There was a long moment of quiet before Khan said, “It seems to me, Captain, that you have several options. The first, and least advised, would be to engage us in combat. You will surely lose or at the very least sustain heavy casualties. The second, and least likely, would be for you to leave and pretend you never found us. The third…”

Khan paused for a moment and looked to Pavel again, giving him another searching look. Pavel met his gaze and, after a moment, they seemed to come to a silent agreement. Khan knew that Kirk would never leave them unmolested. He harbored too much anger and grief for what Khan had done. But Khan also knew that Pavel would never forgive him if he hurt any member of his former crew.

“Come aboard.” Pavel said suddenly.

Khan looked up sharply. Pavel wasn’t looking at him, though. He was pinning Kirk with a look of such cold warning that is was reminiscent of a look Khan himself would give a potential threat.

“Come aboard ze ship and meet ze crew. None of zese people hawe commited any crime against ze Federation. See what we hawe done vis our freedom and judge for yourselwes whezer or not we deserwe to be free.” Pavel challenged. “But know zis. Zese people are my crew, and If ewen one of zem comes to harm, I vill not hesitate to put you down.” Pavel turned sharply on his heel and strode off the bridge and into the captain’s chamber off the left side.

Khan looked after him for a moment before turning to Kirk and raising a brow. “You have your options, Captain. I will give you an hour to decide,” Khan said, cutting the feed. He turned to Joachim who had been manning the science station. “Take us down to yellow alert. Notify me if they make any moves. I will be in my office.”

 

 

 

Khan flowed gracefully to his feet and followed Pavel’s path into his office. He found the boy standing at his desk, leaning heavily on the metal surface and staring, unseeing, down at his hands.

“Had you been anyone else, I would be reprimanding you for taking such liberties,” Khan said, stepping closer. “I don’t trust them, and you shouldn’t either. But if you believe that they will listen to what we have to say, I am willing to allow this. I’m trusting you. With my crew. And with my family.”

Pavel turned then, finding Khan very close, only inches separating them now.

“And I’m glad you chose to stay,” Khan murmured. His eyes lowered from where they had been firmly locked with Pavel’s, dropping to his lips.

“Zis is my home now. I can’t szink of anyszing I would raszer be doing zan helping you and our crew build a life for zemselwes. Eweryone deserwes ze right to be free and to liwe how zey want. Zis may be zere only chance. And I vant to be a part of zat. Zey are my family now too.” Pavel said.

“That’s what I hoped you would say,” Khan rumbled before taking Pavel’s lips in a fierce kiss, hands coming up to fist into the boy’s wild curls and bring him impossibly closer. It was rough and messy and heated, and Pavel felt something growing in his chest. It was a feeling he couldn’t define, but he liked it. Throwing all caution to the wind, Pavel dove into the kiss, biting and licking his way into Khan’s mouth with a fervor he didn’t know he possessed.

When they finally came up for air, breathing hard and mouths damp and swollen, Khan looked in Pavel’s eyes and said, “We must talk, but at a later date. First, we have a crew to protect.”

Stepping away Khan rounded his desk and said, “What is your plan?”

Clearing his throat, Pavel answered, “Sympathy. Eet is ze only vay we can end zis visout any conflict. Ve hawe to make zem see zat we just vant to be left alone. Let ze Keptin meet ze crew. Show him vat we hawe done on ze planet. Show him our preparations and tell him our plans for ze future.”

“You think that will work?” Khan asked.

“It has to.” Pavel said, giving him a sad look.

“Indeed.”


	12. Suprise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Honestly I have no Idea what I'm doing anymore.

The plan was simple, really. The alert was dropped and everyone was told to go about their business as if nothing was amiss. They were warned that the federation would be on board to observe, but everyone was to ignore their presence completely unless addressed directly. Pavel knew that he wouldn't be able to act so casually about the situation, so he met Lione on the sparring match in a attempt to burn off some of his excess energy. 

"Are you sure you shouldn't be with Khan? It seems like you are all Star Fleet is really interested in." Lione asked, pinning him to the mat. 

Breaking free, Pavel spun and swept her feet out from underneath her. "Vere supposed to be going about our days like ve normally vould," Pavel said, panting. "Zis vas my first instinct, zerfore I'm exactly vere I should be." 

"Can't argue with that." 

 

 

 

 

The atmosphere was tense in the transporter room, roughly an hour after Khan's ultimatum to the Enterprise. Kirk seemed mere moments from throwing caution to the wind and tackling Khan to the floor. Fighting a goading smile, Khan greeted the Officers in as civil a manner as he could manage. He motioned for them to follow and led the party out into the corridor, heading for the mess hall. 

"Since you have had little to no exposure to my people aside from your dealings with me, It is understandable that you would have a skewed perspective of us. My actions while under duress, while exactly in line with my character, are not an acceptable mold by which to judge my entire species," Khan murmured, preceding them into the common area. 

At the bar, Keenan was flirting outrageously with Tiana, a pixie like Augment who frequently tended bar in the mess hall. She wiped the bar and smiled shyly, dimples flashing in her ebony cheeks. Across the room, John, Bill, and Anton were playing some form of card game and using their assigned shifts in the science sector to gamble. As he watched, Anton reached over and ruffled Bill's dark curls. Bill, not fooled at all, jerked his cards out of view and socked his very large companion in the shoulder. 

Looking around, Kirk narrowed his eyes at the very normal picture presented by Khan's crew. He made eye contact with Spock for a moment before moving to leave the room. 

"This is touching and all, Singh, but it's not what we really came to see," Kirk started. "What I really want to see is Pavel, yet he seems conspicuously absent. Why is that?" 

Khan pinned Kirk with an unamused look and said, "How should I know? I'm not the boss of him." Turning, Khan looked back into the mess hall and called, "John." 

Looking up from his game, John quirked a brow. "Boss?" 

"Where is Pavel?" 

"Dunno. Last time I saw him, he and Lione were headed for deck three." 

Nodding, Khan pulled a communicator from his pocket. "Titus." 

" _Yeah, Cap?"_ Came Titus' voice a moment later. 

"Where is your wife?" 

" _Jeez, Boss, we aren't married yet!"_ Ford griped. " _She's on the mat with the kid."_  

Not bothering to reply, Khan disconnected and turned to the turbolift. After arriving on deck three, Khan rounded the corner into the exercise area and paused, allowing his guests to take in the room. 

Pavel had moved on from his match with Lione and was now sparring with the Kubas while Lione cheered from the sidelines. As they watched, he spun low and landed a solid kick to Miso's ankle, neatly avoiding a punch aimed at his face from the other twin.  

"C'mon Homa! This isn't fair. You know he can’t take BOTH of you black ops mother fuckers!" Lione called. "Yes! Good job, short stack!" 

Homa rushed Pavel, who used the taller man's force to send him into his twin, knocking both men off the mat and ending the match. 

"Acceptable," Homa said, straightening. "But it would do you no good in an actual combat situation. There is no out of bounds when defending your life from a real aggressor." 

Lione walked up beside the stoic man and hip checked him. "Yeah but what did you expect. Pavel is human. He's operating on a handicap already, dude. You can't expect him to take two Augments on and win in a fair fight. Besides, if anyone ever fucked with the kid, half the crew would jump to his aid and the other half would be holding Khan down to prevent a massacre, so it's not like the kid is on his own. 

"All of ze augments are a part of my crew anyvey," Pavel interjected. "So anyvone I fought vouldn't be an Augment, and vould zerefore be easier to beat." 

"I would much rather you be over-prepared than see you taken by surprise." Homa said.  

Pavel smiled, "Thanks." 

 

Sensing the moment was over, Khan cleared his throat, signaling their presence to Pavel, who started and turned around. Khan smiled at how Pavel's face lit up when they locked eyes. His smile dimmed only slightly upon noticing Kirk and Spock on his heels. 

"Khan," Pavel said, drawing closer. "Ze Kuba's just finished my strategy training for today." 

"He is doing much better than our initial estimates of his skill level would suggest," Miso offered. 

"Good," Khan said, offering Pavel a small smile. "I'm glad you are enjoying the lessons." 

"I am," Pavel said, glancing at Kirk. "Now, eef you don't need me, Zere vere a few simulations I vanted to run on my project?" Pavel said, inquiringly. 

"I believe Kirk wished to have a word with you, but you may do as you wish. Things are going smoothly on the planet's surface, so the work below needs little monitoring. I had a few more areas I wished to show to the Captain before returning him to his ship. You are free to accompany us if you wish before returning to your experiment." Khan replied. 

"Ok" Pavel smiled at Khan before turning to Kirk, somewhat awkwardly, and waiting for him to speak. 

Kirk looked to Khan pointedly before saying, "Can we go somewhere more private?" 

Pavel's brow furrowed in confusion. "Vhy?" 

Clearing his throat, Khan suggested, "I have a few minor things to attend on the bridge. Perhaps you would like to show the Captain your quarters and we can meet in the medbay shortly?" 

Pavel met his eyes and, after a moment, shrugged. Turning, he led Kirk and Spock to the turbolift. The ride was quiet and more awkward than Pavel was prepared for, but they arrived at his quarters quickly and Pavel let them into the room. 

"Your door is damaged." Spock noted. 

"Nah, it does exactly vat I vant it to," Pavel said. "Automatic doors irritate me, so I modified ze door to notify me of ze identity of whoewer requests permission to enter and I can decide if I vant to let zem in." 

"You have a problem with people breaking in?" Kirk asked. 

"Not really, ze like to come in vhile I'm sleeping, but no one has tried to steal or anyszing like zat." Pavel answered. 

"So Khan couldn't just barge in if he wanted to?" Kirk said, inspecting the contents of Pavels shelves. 

"Of course he can. Vhy vould I vant to keep Khan out?" Pavel replied, puzzled. 

"Uh, maybe because he was the bastard that kidnapped you?" Kirk said, heatedly. 

"Zat doesn't make him a bad person." Pavel argued. "I may not hawe vanted to come, but ze only reason Khan took me vas because he could tell I vas being underutilized. He says zat I am ze most Augment-like human he has ewer met and ze reason he brought me along vas to giwe me ze opportunity to reach my full potential." 

"Bullshit!" Kirk exploded. "That man took you out of completely selfish reasons, and he can disguise it in whatever sanctimonious flowery words he wants, that won’t change the fact that he took you against your will." 

"Whezer I made ze decision to come or not, Ceptin, Zat does not change ze fact zat I chose to stay." Pavel said. "Khan gave me ze choice to go, but zis is vere I vant to be. Noszing you say vill change zat." 

"These are the first officer's quarters." Spock said, distracting Kirk from the heated remark on the tip of the man's tongue. 

"What?" 

"Khan placed Pavel in the first officer's quarters. These rooms are not only the nicest on the ship, apart from Khan's own, but also the closest to his in proximity." Spock continued, giving Pavel a pointed look. "I wonder what that says about Khan's opinion of Mr. Chekov." 

Pavel sputtered for a moment before blurting, "Ve should probably be getting to ze med bay." 

He hurried from the room, Kirk and Spock following close behind. 

 

 

 

 

Khan was already in the medbay when they arrived. 

"I do not understand your decision, but as the offspring is not mine, I have little say in the matter." Khan was saying as they walked in. 

"You didn't know?" Pavel said, coming up behind Khan where he was kneeling in front of Talea, hands on her swollen belly. 

"Didn't know what?" Kirk said, from the doorway. 

Pavel turned to Kirk and smiled. "Talea has decided to name her child Singhara, after Khan. The baby is due any day now." 

"Wait, I don't understand. How can she be about to have a baby? Just a couple months ago she was sealed inside a cryotube, where she had been for _hund_ _reds_ _of years._ How the hell can she be about to have a baby?" Kirk asked, bewildered. 

"The answer to that is rather obvious. Is it not?" Khan growled, standing. "She was pregnant when they sealed her in there! It's honestly a miracle the baby survived at all. Tell me Captain, what could she have done that merited a sentence that was nearly guaranteed to result in the death of her child. The only child to have been produced amongst my kind in nearly three hundred years and only the second child to _ever_ come from an augment union. Her jailers were well aware of her condition and the risk posed to the child by cryostasis. Where is the justice in _that."_  

Pavel stepped forward and placed a calming hand on Khan's elbow. Locking eyes, Pavel and Khan shared a tense moment before Khan let out a ragged breath and made a visible effort to calm himself.  

"I apologize," Khan said, roughly. "The wellbeing and future of my people is a subject about which I feel very strongly." 

"I understand." Spock spoke up, unexpectedly. "No matter what crimes your people may or may not have committed, there is no excuse to do harm to an innocent. Especially one that has not yet entered this world." 

Turning, Spock placed a hand on Kirk's shoulder. "I believe my Captain and I have been given quite a lot to consider. If you would, give us the night to consider our next course of action. We will contact you in the morning, once we have reached a decision." 

Khan nodded and motioned to another Augment to see the two men back to the transporter. He couldn't say whether the meeting had gone well or not, but he hoped whatever decision they came to did not result in any more bloodshed. Khan was tired. He felt the weight of a bone deep weariness that he couldn't seem to escape, no matter how he tried. Khan sighed and knew that he would get little sleep in the coming hours. 

 

 

 

 

Khan woke from his fitful sleep to the sound of his communicator chirping.  

"What."  

"Sorry to wake you, Boss." Joachim's voice said from the device. "But they are gone." 

"What? Who is gone?" Khan said confused. 

"The Enterprise. The whole damn ship. Bastards slipped away some time last night and no one fucking noticed." 

Cursing, Khan sprang from his bed and slid into his pants and boots. Forgoing a shirt, he stomped out of his quarters and toward the bridge, quieting his curses as he passed Pavel's door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is so short, guys. I suck for not updating more but I literally had to reread the whole thing before deciding where I wanted to take the next chapter, to it took a while. Tell me what you think please.

**Author's Note:**

> Tell me what you think. Comments and suggestions almost always make it into my stories.


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